AUTHOR: GODFREY MOENG MONYAKENG

Level: 500
ST ID: 201704996
COURSE: MINING ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT: CIVIL ENGINEERING
REPORT TITLE: ICE BLASTING BY EXPLOSIVES(SPECIALIZED BLASTING
APPLICATIONS)
LECTURER: MR.TSHWENYEGO

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CONTENTS
i) ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................ 3
1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION ........................................................................................... 4
1.1. Ice Jams and their formation and occurrence .......................................................................... 4
1.2. How nature naturally deals with ice jams? ............................................................................. 4
1.3. Mitigation measures to Ice Jam Flooding ............................................................................... 4
1.4. Blasting of River Ice by the use of explosives as a solution to Ice Jams ............................ 5
2. METHODOLOGY OF ICE BLASTING AT HEILONJIAN RIVER........................................ 6
2.1. Aim ......................................................................................................................................... 6
2.2. Site location ........................................................................................................................ 6
2.3. Site Characteristics and Ice Jam Occurrence ...................................................................... 6
2.4. Main causes of Ice Jam formation .......................................................................................... 7
2.5. Experimental setup for the case study..................................................................................... 7
2.5.1. Study criteria ................................................................................................................... 7
2.5.2. Selection of explosive type, amount, and timing ............................................................ 7
3. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS OF THE CASE STUDY................................................................. 9
4. DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................... 10
4.1. Drawbacks/challenges of Ice jam mitigation ........................................................................ 10
5. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................. 11
6. REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................. 12
7. APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................... 13

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 i) ABSTRACT
This report is based on a specific case study conducted in China at Heilonjian River as it
contains very significant information on the utilization of explosives to blast ice on the river
for specific purposes. This report also tries to give general information on explosives and their
properties, global wide range of use and the continuous development on their extensive use on
ice blasting. The main intention of this report is to inform the reader of the extent of use of
explosives even in colder regions of the earth to prevent river ice disaster.

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 1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION
1.1. Ice Jams and their formation and occurrence
Ice Jams are a major risk threat to a country’s economy and residential life. They pose
environmental risks that occur in rivers which result in a disastrous flooding of river water
(Britannica, 2019).
Their formation is simply natural and not in any way influenced by the actions of mankind. Ice
jams form when the amount of ice moving in the river exceeds the river channel's transport
capacity – its ability to move materials downstream. Since this is a natural process, it is
therefore gradual orientated. (Britannica, 2019)
According to (Britannica, 2019),this accumulation of ice forms where there is a great change
in river gradient meaning the huge sudden change in the slope of a river from steeper to milder
or gentle slope. It can also occur where moving ice meets an intact ice cover and it normally
occurs at the point of outflow into a lake, or on the edge of a glacier or ice sheet (Britannica,
2019). Flooding resulting from an ice jam simply means the ice accumulation impedes the flow
of the river water to greater heights and volumes which then a critical limit of the strength of
the ice is reach and it fails to withstand the stresses brought by such a huge amount of water
which then later spews into surrounding residents, crops, animals etc.
1.2. How nature naturally deals with ice jams?
(Tao Wang H. F., 2020)There are various ways in which nature causes disaster and later goes
in the opposite direction of trying to solve that disaster and these are explained as follows
➢ Change in seasons: One condition that inhibits the formation of an ice jam is
temperature above freezing point. According to (Britannica, 2019),in the late stages of
winter season the air temperature rises above the freezing point which in turn causes
the river ice to melt because of 2 main reasons; heat transfer from above and the
movement of warm water flowing underneath the ice.
➢ Radiant heat from the sun: (Britannica, 2019) says that river ice also may deteriorate
because of absorption of solar radiation and heat from the sun.
1.3. Mitigation measures to Ice Jam Flooding
(Tao Wang H. F., 2020) says the methods to control the Ice Jam Flooding are grouped mainly
into two:
➢ Structural measures: construction of weirs, dams, diversion channels, heightening
dams
➢ Non Structural measures: ice blasting, hole drilling, ice breaking using an amphibious
excavator

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 1.4. Blasting of River Ice by the use of explosives as a solution to Ice Jams
(Tao Wang X. G., 2018)The principle of using explosives to blast ice is a measure that falls
under two categories mainly:
➢ Mitigative/attenuative measure
➢ Preventive measure
Mitigative measure in this case means that to consider on the onset of an ice jam whereas
preventive measure is to modify the environmental condition such that it inhibits or does not
favour the formation of an ice jam (Fu, 2020).
According to (Tao Wang X. G., 2018), the concept of using explosives to blast ice is one which
is presently under continuous innovation because it requires certain careful study of the
relations between the following parameters:
➢ Radius of blasting crater
➢ Amount of explosive
➢ Water depth
➢ Thickness of the ice cover

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 2. METHODOLOGY OF ICE BLASTING AT HEILONJIAN RIVER

2.1. Aim
This section of the report entails the methodological procedure of a case study which was
conducted at China, Heilong River of which the main aim of this study was to investigate the
ffects of Water Depth and Ice Thickness on Ice Cover Blasting for Ice Jam Flood Prevention.
2.2. Site location
(Tao Wang X. G., 2018) says that the Heilongjiang River also known as Amur River is
located in northeastern China and serves as the border between China and Russia.

Figure 2.0. Location of the Heilong River and its major tributaries
2.3. Site Characteristics and Ice Jam Occurrence
‘The annual average temperature in the region is about below -2°C and the freeze up period
lasts up to 6 months’ (Tao Wang X. G., 2018). Significant ice jams occur every 3 years on
average in the upper reach of Heilongjiang River.
The Field measurements recorded a Ice Cover thickness of 2.0m on the Heilongjiang River of
which according to (Tao Wang X. G., 2018), is ranked as extremely strong Ice Cover. In
addition to the 2.0m of ice cover, an average of 20cm thickness of snow covering the ice was
also recorded.
The Heilongjiang River is ‘narrow and meandering main channel, connecting islands, a large
number of branches and trenches, and steep change in river gradient, resulting in uneven
distribution of the flow and water depth along the river. The above factors lead to frequent
occurrence of ice jams during breakup’’ (Tao Wang X. G., 2018).

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 2.4. Main causes of Ice Jam formation
According to (Tao Wang X. G., 2018), the main causes(amongst many) of Ice Jam formation
are as follows as they are the most common:
➢ The influence of precipitation
➢ Steep changes in the river gradient
➢ Seasonal Changes of the weather
2.5. Experimental setup for the case study
2.5.1. Study criteria
For the case study which was carried out at Heilongjiang River, (Tao Wang X. G., 2018) says
that the criteria for Ice Jam mitigation used were as follows:
➢ Ice Cover blasting
➢ Ice Jam Blasting
As noticed in the two words mentioned above, Ice cover Blasting is a preventive measure,
meaning to go against the conditions which favour the formation of Ice Jams. (Gennady N.
Bogomolov, 2017) says Ice Cover blasting breaks ice covers into smaller components, which
facilitates a smooth flow downstream during the breakup before the ice jam formation. The
other benefit is that the practice also allows the radiant heat of the sun to penetrate the water
under the ice cover and weaken the ice cover in the vicinity of the blasting area through heat
transfer (Tao Wang X. G., 2018).
Ice Jam blasting in this case is a control measure which is to say that once the main event has
occurred, which is an Ice Jam, then blasting by explosives on the area should be carried out,
with the result being to prevent Ice flooding.
2.5.2. Selection of explosive type, amount, and timing
In this section it is important to note that the influence of the choice of explosive on ice blasting
is very negligible (Tao Wang X. G., 2018). This means the choice of explosive to be used does
not deviate from the performance characteristics of the 4 parameters which were mentioned in
the beginning of the report. (Tao Wang X. G., 2018) indicates this by showing that In China,
the Institute of Engineer Crops used TNT Explosive for ice blasting under water, TNT
Explosive and Rock Emulsion Explosive have been used for ice blasting on the Yellow River
and Rock Emulsion Explosives has been used for ice blasting on the Heilongjiang River from
2011 through 2017.
Research from experimental data has indicated that the equation to calculate the optimal
explosive mass is

𝑊𝑜𝑝𝑡 = 21𝑡 3

Where the variable Wopt represents the optimal amount of explosives in kilograms, whereas (t)
represents the thickness of Ice Cover in metres. As it can be seen from the above equation, the
variable (t) positively corresponds with the variable Wopt . (Tao Wang X. G., 2018) says One
important factor to note from the equation is that the corresponding amount of explosives is
less if the value of (t) 1 and below i.e. 0.5, 0.8 ,0.9. For rivers such as Heilongjiang River whose

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Ice Cover thickness exceeds the value 1, the amount of explosive required will be too high
which then makes the equation to be uneconomical as researchers of the case study state, which
is why the objective of the study was to develop a blasting technology which is appropriate for
natural rivers in high latitude regions like the Heilongjiang River based on blasting experiments
(Tao Wang X. G., 2018).

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 3. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS OF THE CASE STUDY
In this section it should be noted that the basic requirement in ice blasting is to predict the size
of the crater as the dependent variable. From all the experiments and observations which were
carried out at Heilongjiang River, the task was to establish the relation between the blasting
crater radius (Rc ) which acts as the dependent variable and other relevant variables , using the
following input data for prediction:
➢ Explosives weight (W)
➢ Water depth below the ice (hc)
➢ Explosives depth under the ice cover (dc)
➢ Ice cover thickness (t)
The above parameters are independent variables. This then means that different combinations
of values of the above 4 mentioned parameters yielded a different value of blasting crater
radius. The relation between the blasting crater radius and the other 4 variables were built by
regression analysis. The parameters mentioned above were too many to apply regression
analysis and hence the need to reduce the parameters by applying some methematical concepts,
which is to express one variable in terms of another. In this case , the Cube Root Scaling
procedure was used, which is to divide every linear variable by the cube root of the weight of
explosive as shown in the below equations. In this study, the explosive density was taken to be
constant.

𝑅𝑐
𝑌= 1
𝑊3
𝑡
𝑋1 = 1
𝑊3
ℎ𝑐
𝑋2 = 1
𝑊3
Where; Y= scaled crater radius, X1=scaled ice cover thickness, and X2=scaled water depth
below ice cover. The chosen regression equation was then:

𝑌 = 𝑏0 + 𝑏1 𝑋1 + 𝑏2 𝑋2 + 𝑏3 𝑋12 + 𝑏4 𝑋1 𝑋2 + 𝑏5 𝑋22 + 𝑏6 𝑋13 + 𝑏7 𝑋12 𝑋2 + 𝑏8 𝑋1 𝑋22 + 𝑏9 𝑋23

‘A total of 214 sets of effective data based on hundreds of field conditions were collected during
2015～2017’ (Tao Wang X. G., 2018). ‘In order to make sure that the diameters of all the
blasting craters can be independently measured, a sufficient distance was kept between each
blasting craters’ (Tao Wang X. G., 2018). ‘The explosives were placed under the ice cover
based on the principal proposed by the USACE, i.e. the optimal location of the explosives was
0～0.6 t below the ice cover’ (Tao Wang X. G., 2018). This then meant that the impact of the
location of the explosive below the ice cover was neglected.

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 4. DISCUSSION

4.1. Drawbacks/challenges of Ice jam mitigation

According to (Tao Wang X. G., 2018), in spite of the continuous invention of Ice Engineering
for the betterment of all mankind, the mitigation measures set forth by engineers to either
prevent Ice Jams from occurring or eradicating them once they have occurred, there are
limitations to any method to be taken which are:
➢ some rivers serve as international boundaries and hence the construction of dams, weirs,
or other hydraulic structures is not possible.
➢ Shortage of relevant equipment at the area to be used.
➢ Local conditions inhibiting the use of such equipment mentioned above.
➢ It was found that the region where the river is located was a very remote location, and
hence transportation and communication systems are undeveloped in this region and
observation equipment and technologies are lacking behind which makes mitigation
measures to be very difficult to implement simply because of very slow research
progress on the area on Ice Jam Flood prevention.
➢ In most instances, the use of explosives is a second thought or option to Ice Jam
mitigation, and mostly people would first prefer the use of mechanical destruction,
surface treatment, and thermal modification. However, some environments such as
Heilongjiang River whose Ice Cover is 2.0m and Snow Thickness is 20cm do not permit
or is highly uneconomical and impracticable to use the above-mentioned mitigation
measures and hence explosives are considered .
This then leaves one fact that the only available non-structural measures are to prevent ice jam
formation and to remove ice jams.

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 5. CONCLUSION
As said by (Tao Wang X. G., 2018) that the use of Explosives is not a new engineering practice,
meaning that the earliest engineering practice of blasting ice by explosives dates as early as
200 years ago, the research for the use of explosives to blast ice has been still progressing
slowly. (Tao Wang X. G., 2018) says it is because of limitation of several factors such as river
conditions, the surrounding environment, and the difficulty and risks from the field operations.

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 6. REFERENCES
Britannica, T. E. (2019, August 22). Ice Jam Formation. Retrieved from Brittanica:
https://www.britannica.com/science/ice-jam

Fu, H. (2020). Cold Regions Science And Technology, 38.

Gennady N. Bogomolov, V. P. (2017, June). MATEC web of conferences. Retrieved September 21,
2021, from https://www.matec-
conferences.org/articles/matecconf/abs/2017/24/matecconf_hmt2017_01014/matecconf_
hmt2017_01014.html

Tao Wang, H. F. (2020, June). ResearchGate. Retrieved September 09, 2021, from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342161622_River-
ice_blasting_and_explosive_weight_optimization_for_ice-
flooding_mitigation_A_case_study

Tao Wang, X. G. (2018, May 28). Effects of Water Depth and Ice Thickness on Ice Cover Blasting for
Ice Jam Flood Prevention: A Case Study on the Heilong River, China. p. 13.

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 7. APPENDIX
Table. Ice jam Events on the Heilongjiang River .Collected from (Tao Wang X. G., 2018).

Maximum
Breakup Head Period of ice
YEAR date Location of Ice Jam Increase(m) jam(month-date)
1950 / Jialinda-Oupu in Tahe reach 9.4 09-05 to 011-05
Louguhe-Mohe City in Moher
1953 / reach 7.46 05 May to 08 May
Louguhe-Mohe City in Moher
1956 / reach 7.39 08 May to 10 May
1958 01 May Lianyin-Hutong Tahe reach 10.14 05 May to 10 May
Louguhe-Huoermojin City in
1960 26 April Moher reach 13.56 27 April to 10 May

1961 27 April Lianyin in Mohe reach 8.03 /

1964 30 April Jialinda-Malun in Mohe reach 8.00 02 May to 14 May
1970 27 April Huma city in Huma reach 5.22 /
1971 23 April Luoguge-Sandoaka in Mohe reach 9.90 23 April to 04 May
1973 05 May Jialinda-Hutong in Mohe reach 8.20 06 May to 01 June
1977 03 May Mohe-Kaikukang in Mohe reach 6.65 /
Luoguhe-Mohe city in Mohe
1981 23 April reach 7.46 28 April to 30 April
Luoguhe-Huoermojin in Mohe
1985 18 April reach 12.60 17 April to 29 May
1986 04 May Luoguhe-Malun in Mohe reach 9.25 04 May to 08 May
1987 08 May Kaikukang-Oupu in Tahe reach 6.17 /
1988 22 April Kaikukang in Tahe reach 5.11 /
1991 01 May Luoguhe-Malun in Mohe reach 8.80 28 April to 04 May
Luoguhe-Kaikukang in Mohe
1994 29 April reach 10.93 29 April to 01 May
Luoguhe-Mohe city in Mohe
1995 03 May reach 10.10 05 May to 09 May
2000 28 April Jinshan-Huma in Mohe reach 9.23 29 April to 01 May
Beihong-Hongqiling in Mohe
2009 14 April reach / 16 April to 21 April
2010 25 April Beihong-Xingan in Mohe reach 8.34 03 May to 09 May
2013 01 May Mohe-Huma in Mohe reach / 02 May to 07 May

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