ROCK BLASTING and EXPLOSIVES ENGINEERING Per-Anders Persson Roger Holmberg Jaimin LeeIntroduction This text is about the civilized, creative, and productive use of explosives, primarily in mining and civil engineering, but also in other fields of engineering, and even in creating fine art, We will convey the message that explosives, just like all other materials, function according to the laws of physics and chemistry; that the effects of explosives can be precalculated and predicted quite accurately; and that rock blasting and explosive working of other materials are just branches of engineering, with equations and graphs, and good or bad design. For many people, explosives are associated with destruction, fear, and sudden death. It is not surprising that there is such widespread fear of explosives. Military high explosives have been used, and are still being used as this is written, to spread death and devastation among people of different beliefs. In the less violent field of rock blasting, there is to most of us something awe-inspiring about the sight of a large expanse of hard, immobile, solid rock that has been in place for millions of years, suddenly coming to life and disintegrating into thousands of tons of rubble while the ground shivers, clouds of smoke emerge, and the rumble of thunder fills the air. It is quite right, too, that detonators, booster charges, and explosives should be treated with due respect, in the same way that one has to be careful with a mousetrap set ready with a piece of cheese, or a loaded gun. One needs to know where the trigger is, safeguard it against inadvertent triggering, and keep out of the way when the trigger is squeezed. There are regulations, rules, and laws for the use of explosives which are meant to be such a safeguard against accidents. ‘These are different in different countries, districts, and states, and we will deal only with the fundamental principles behind them. Remember that they exist, and go looking for them before you start handling explosives. But remember also that it is your personal responsibility to make sure you run a safe operation. The rules and regulations are a help, but nothing can replace your personal knowledge and understanding of the safety characteristics of explosives. ‘This book is intended to supply some of that knowledge and understanding. Rock blasting is used in applications ranging in size from small boulder blasting in the back garden, using perhaps 10 or 20 g of explosive, to large-scale open pit mining operations where perhaps 200 tons of explosive are consumed in a single round. Rock blasting is big business. In 1990, the total consumption of commercial explosives in the USA was 2.1 billion kg (2.1 x 10° kg), equivalent to a volume of solid rock broken of about 12 m® per capita (total volume of rock broken divided by the total population). In 1993 prices in the USA, we may assume that the average cost. of the explosives used in rock blasting is of the order of $1 per kg (44 cents per Ib). ‘The cost of accessories (detonators, booster charges, and specialty explosives) might add perhaps 25% to that cost. The cost of drilling the holes in which to place the explosives could perhaps be $0.5 per kg explosive. The total average cost in a large-scale blasting oper- ation would then be about $1.75 per kg explosive. The estimated total market value of commercial explosives, accessories, and blasthole drilling is then $3.5 to $4 billion. (‘The f2 Introduction cost figures quoted are probably low by comparison on an international scale, reflect- ing the fact that the largest part — 90% or more — of the US commercial explosives consumption is low cost ANFO and also the fact that a major part of the rock drilling for coal, which dominates large-scale blasting in the USA, is in soft, sedimentary rock.) Toward the end of the 1980s, the rock blasting explosives consumption in the former Soviet Union was about 2.7 billion kg, equivalent to perhaps 13 m® of solid rock broken per capita. Already in 1971, we estimated the total volume of rock and ore blasted in the world to be about 3.8 billion (3.8 x 10°) m®, equivalent to a volume of solid rock broken of not far from 1 m® per capita. In 1990, the commercial explosives consump- tion in Australia was more than 500 million kg, giving the world record for the largest: volume of solid rock broken per inhabitant to that vast, sparsely populated continent, for an estimated 45 m® per capita. The Scandinavian countries have a long tradition of large-scale rock blasting operations; in the hard bedrock prevalent there, blasting is the normal first step in the construction of underground hydroelectric power plants, harbors, roads, airfields, and in metal and mineral mining. In 1990, the commercial explosives consumption in Sweden was 35 million kg, equivalent to a rock blasting vol- ume of almost 6 m® per capita. We estimate corresponding values for the rock blasting volume in the Western part of Europe to be less than 2 m® per capita. At the present time in the USA, coal mining consumes the greatest volumes of commercial explosives. Most of the coal mining in the USA is carried out as strip mining. In recent years, the explosives consumption, which closely reflects the general health of the economy, has stagnated or decreased. In a longer perspective, there is little doubt that the increasing population in the USA and worldwide, with its increasing demand for more roads, airfields, harbors, building materials, metals, mineral resources, and energy, will lead to further growth in the volume of rock blasting. ‘An understanding of the strength and deformation behavior of rock materials under dynamic loads and an appreciation of the forces generated by the detonating explosive charge are the basic elements of the engineering of rock blasting. It is a very exciting science — rock materials come in a wide variety of mechanical properties and they have a rich structure of bedding planes, cracks, fissures, or joints (Figure 1). The weak planes are oriented in all kinds of directions. This science demands more of fantasy and ability to think in a three-dimensional space than the simple science of strength of homogeneous materials such as metals or ceramics. The chemical reactions in detonating high explosives run at rates that are unusually high, and the detonation-wave travels through a stick of dynamite at a rate of several thousand meters per second. The pressures generated run into the range of a 100,000 atm. In view of the complexity of the science of rock blasting, we have to simplify in order to solve its problems, and we have to simplify intelligently. Some problems we can solve by regarding rock as a homogeneous brittle solid. Often, when we are looking at what happens in the near regions of a borehole when the charge detonates, this is sufficient. With present-day personal computers, computational solutions to several problems of this kind can be obtained with ease. Other problems of practical blasting can be attacked by the empirical method. Many years of industrial and experimental experience have been condensed into graphs or equations that tell us how much explosive is needed to obtain this or that size fragment distribution using this or that borehole diameter. Much of what we know about blasting pattern design falls into this category — experimental results summarized into an engineering technique of calculating charge sizes and borehole patterns to obtain the required fragmentation or the required strength of the remaining rock. Such blasting engineering calculations are increasingly being performed with the help of computers.