Document Type : Original Research Paper
Authors
1 Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited, Ranchi
2 Northern Coalfield Limited, Singrauli
Abstract
Deep hole blasting is essential for high-capacity excavators like draglines and shovels to achieve high production targets in opencast coal mining. However, a critical challenge associated with deep hole blasting is ground vibration, which poses risks to nearby infrastructure, including power plants, the Rihand Dam, and local settlements near the Khadia Opencast coal mine. This study aims to analyze the effect of blast hole diameter on peak particle velocity (PPV) to improve vibration control. Experimental investigations were conducted by executing multiple blasts using hole diameters of 159 mm, 269 mm, and 311 mm across different benches of the Khadia mine, with PPV values recorded at various scaled distances. The observed relationship between PPV and hole diameter was further validated through explicit dynamic modeling of the mine’s geology and blast conditions using ANSYS-Autodyn software. The results presents some exclusive observation that with same charge per delay, for smaller distances i.e. for less than 90 m the values of PPV is always higher in large diameter hole blasting while for distance above 500 m the PPV values are higher in smaller diameter holes blasting. The results provide a unique insight for optimizing blast parameters to minimize ground vibrations while maintaining production efficiency.
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