Abstract:
Quarrying and underground excavations carried out by drilling-and blasting is the most commen technique usued in sri lankan mining practice
Although only a small amount of the explosive energy is efficiently utilized in rock
blasting, the economics of subsequent processes such as loading, hauling and
crushing are governed by the initial explosive impact on breakage of hard rock.
Explosive consumption in the initial stage of rock breakage from the mass is
expressed in terms of explosive specific charge or powder factor. Variations in
geological and geo-technical parameters such as rock joint characteristics; strength
of rock and rock mass rating (RMR) with varying geological characteristics is
reflected in the variation of the specific charge of the explosive. Even though there
is a large variation in geology over the Sri Lankan land mass only the metamorphic
rock terrain has been considered, in studying the influence of geological and
geotechnical properties on the determination of the explosive specific charge as an
important parameter in blast planning and estimation. The paper emphasises the
relationship of rock strength parameters and rock mass rating when estimating
optimum explosive specific charge for economical quarrying and tunnelling
practices in Sri Lankan conditions.
Citation:
De Silva, P.H.H.M., Anuruddha, H.M.D., Abeysinghe, A.M.C.L., Priyashantha, K.M.D.C., Hemalal, P.V.A., & Dharmaratne, P.G.R. (2015). Influence of geotechnical conditions on explosive specific charge in Sri Lankan quarrying and tunnelling practices. In P.V.A. Hemalal (Ed.), Proceedings of the 9th Annual ERE Research Conference on Earth Resources Management (pp. 9-14). Department of Earth Resources Engineering, University of Moratuwa.
