Basics of BLASTING Design

MD. ALIUR RAHMAN

Lecturer
Dept. of PME, MIST
 Introduction
 Blasting is performed to break rock so that it
may be quarried for processing in an aggregate
production operation, or to excavate a right-of-
way.
 This is a step-by-step procedure for designing
the blast hole layout and calculating the
amount of explosives for blasting rock.
Glossary of Terms
Glossary of Terms
Rock breakage
 Blast Timing and Design Configuration
  

Fragmentation
Site Muck pile
Sensitivity Displacement

 
 

Cost Wall
O p t im u m Control

D e la y
Se q u e n c e
 

Water
 

Simplicity
Conditions

Explosives
 

Geology Used
 
 

Safety
 DRILLING PATTERNS
 Selection of drilling pattern varies with the type and size of
the drill’s used, depth of hole, kind of rock, quantity,
rapidity of the explosive & amount of steaming.
 Blast Design
A good blast design is the safe and economic
way to do blasting. There is two factors those
affect blast design-Geological factors (out of
blaster's control) and Controllable factors.
Controllable factors are:-
i) Borehole Diameter ii) Burden

iii) Spacing iv) Stemming

v) Design of the delay firing system

 Burden
 Burden distance is the shortest distance to stress
relief at the time a blasthole detonates. It is
normally the distance to the free face in an
excavation, whether a quarry situation or a
highway cut.
Contd ….
 When the burden distance is insufficient, rock will
be thrown for excessive distances from the face,
fragmentation may be excessively fine and air
blast levels will be high.
Burden Calculation
Burden Calculation
Example-1
Burden correction
Burden correction
Burden correction factor
Burden correction factor
 Bulk strength
• Relative bulk strength is the strength ratio for a
constant volume compared to a standard
explosive such as ANFO
 Burden distance

• When one or two rows of blastholes are used, the

burden distance between rows will usually be equal.
• The burden distance should also be adjusted because
of the geological variations.
• Rock is not homogeneous material as assumed by all
formulas
• Therefore, it is always necessary to use “correction
factors” fro specific geological conditions.
Example-2
 stemming
 Stemming is the adding of
an inert material, Such as
drill cuttings, on top of
the explosive in a
blasthole for the purpose
of confining the energy of
the explosive
 To function properly the
materials used for
stemming must lock into
the bore hole
 stemming
 It is common practice to use
drill cuttings as the stemming
material.
 To function properly, the
stemming material should
have an average diameter
0.05 times the diameter of the
hole and should be angular.
 If the stemming distance is
too great there will be poor
top breakage from the
explosion and backbreak will
increase.
 stemming
 When the stemming distance
is inadequate, the explosion
will escape prematurely from
the hole.
 Under normal conditions,
properly designed burden and
explosive and good stemming
material, a stemming
distance, T, of 0.7 times the
burden distance, b, will be
satisfactory
So, T= 0.7 x B ………(1)
 subdrilling
 A shot will normally not
break to the very bottom of
the blasthole. This can be
understood by remembering
that the second mechanism of
breakage is flexural rupture.
 To achieve a specified grade,
one will need to drill below
the desired floor elevation.
This portion of the blasthole
below the desired final grade
is termed “Subdrilling”
subdrilling
 Spacing
Spacing is the distance between blast holes fired
in the same row. It is necessary to complete
burden calculations before determining the
spacing.