University of Cambridge, Applied Detonation Physics and

Blast Modelling, 22-26 Sept 2014

Effects of specific charge and EDD:s

on fragmentation in an aggregate
quarry, building KCO design curves
Finn Ouchterlony, Montanuniversitt Leoben, Austria
Ulf Nyberg, Swebrec at Lule Univ Techn, Sweden.
Mats Olsson, EDZ-consulting, lvsj, Sweden
Kerstin Widenberg, NCC Construction, Solna, Sweden
Per Svedensten, Sandvik Construction, Svedala, Sweden.
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Building KCO design curves

Contents
Purpose and consortium
Test site
Tests and data monitoring
Fragmentation
Blast design curves
Conclusions
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Building KCO design curves
Purpose:
to validate earlier work with design curves in
Vndle granite quarry in a quarry with different
geological conditions
to evaluate EDD:s (electronic delay
detonators) with respect to possible finer
fragmentation and other improvements in
bench blasting
Consortium:

MinBaS
MineralBallastSten
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Test site
Lngsen quarry at Arlanda airport: 0.4 Mton/yr
granodiorite aggregate, test period 2007-2009

asphalt test piles

plant

crusher
plant
rounds

Atlas SmartRig D9C

Svedala Arbr R120100 jaw cr.

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Tests and data monitoring
Round 1-N 0,8 kg/m 3 1-H Nonel 1,1 kg/m 3
row 1: 3,4x3,4 m 2 holes / 25 ms in-row
row 2-4: 2,6x3,4 m 67 ms inter-row
Round 2-H 1,1 kg/m 3 2-N Nonel 0,8 kg/m 3
row 1: 2,9x2,9 m 2 holes / 25 ms in-row
row 2-4: 2,2x2,9 m 67 ms inter-row
Round 3 EPD/elektronic 0,8 kg/m 3
row 1: 3,4x3,4 m 10 ms inter-hole in row
row 2-4: 2,6x3,4 m 67 ms inter-row

Round 4 EPD/elektronic 0,8 kg/m 3

row 1: 3,4x3,4 m 5 ms inter-hole in row
row 2-4: 2,6x3,4 m 67 ms inter-row

round 1, Nonel 0,8+1,1 kg/m3 round 4, elektronics 0,8 kg/m3

1-N: 7700 m3 + 1-H: 5600 m3 14000 m3
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Tests and data monitoring
Joint mapping & bench geometry with Blast Metrix
Drill collaring & MWD with Atlas Copco D9C Smart rig
Hole deviations with Devibench
Charging follow up on hole by hole basis
VOD, filming, PPV and air blast during rounds
Fragmentation from sieving and image based method
Building test piles during digging; sorting and
crushing
Special tests on pile material: LA-abrasion, ball mill,
Split Hopkinson bar etc.
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Tests and data monitoring
Rd 1, Nonel, normal (1-N) &
high (1-H) specific charge

fine to medium grained

granodiorite (1-3 mm) pegmatite major joints strike N20-70E
UCS = 206 MPa dikes and dip steeply towards SE
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Fragmentation
Test piles: shuffled, homogenized test piles

before homogenization

11 test piles:
Pile 1A Pile 1B

100 ton sieved,

Pile 2A Pile 2B
fractions weighed,
Pile 3B 3C 3A put back, reshuffled
pegmatite
before pile run
Pile 4D 4C 4D 4A
pegmatite through crusher.

variations within EDD rounds of interest

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Fragmentation
100 t test pile 400 ton Putting back
sorted material in test pile
bucket bucket reshuffling

grizzly 200 mm
+200
Grizzly
+200 mm weighed, put back
-200 weighed, sieved
lab
bucket -sample bucket

Sorting 1
sieve 125 mm
+125 +125 mm weighed, put back
-125 weighed, to interim
truck storage, then sieved
interim storage
0/125 mm
Sorting 2
bucket +75 mm weighed
sieve 40+75 mm
40/75 mm weighed
-40 mm weighed
tray tray tray Weighing:
75/125
0/40
40/75 Bucket scale, product scale,
lab sample belt scale, belt motor power
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Fragmentation
Median fragment size from sieving, x50 for ave. loss scenario

EDD initiation: coarser fragmentation

than Nonel at normal specific charge!

X
pegmatite
Nonel: a higher specific charge
conclusions gives finer fragmentation
supported by
image analysis
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Blast design curves
Lab sieving test piles mtrl before (sorted) and after crushing:

Each curve average

of 11 samples, one for
each pile
Curves renormalized
with respect to total
weight of 0/16 mm
fraction of 0/125 mm
samples. Agreement
between curves good
in 0/16 mm range
useful data range
45

0/45 mm part of 0/125 mm curve represents muck pile fines

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Blast design curves
Building complete sieving curves:
fines region from boulder part
lab samples,
0/45 out of 0/125
middle region test
from test pile piles
sieving
lab sieving boulders
fines tail spliced
to test pile data
use Swebrec
function
consider equiv.
grizzly opening
coarse region
from estimating
boulders overlap 40-45 mm
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Blast design curves

Ppile(x) Difference between pile and

round (pile + oversize OS)
affects x50 and whole curve
Pround(x)

Fragmentation distribution for loaded test pile, excl. OS%

Ppile(x) = Pround(x)/[1-OS/100] for x xOS
Swebrec function for whole blast round, incl. oversize OS
Pround(x) = P (x) = 100/{1+[ln(xmax/x)/ln(xmax/x50)]b}
Five parameters to determine; x50, xmax, b + OS and xOS
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Blast design curves: Finding Pround
Stepwise procedure to find x50, xmax, b, OS and xOS.
Use r2, xmax, b and residual OS to judge fits
See how closely Swebrec P(x) describes pile data
Reweight influence of residuals, w=1, OS still 0%
Equiv. grizzly mesh (//200 #220 mm), reweight
1/x0.25. OS = 5% for rounds data. xOS = 0.9-1 m
For high q rounds OS = 4%, for low q, OS = 7%
Use same b = 4,17 or blasting harder creates less -1
mm fines
r2 = 0,998, xmax = 5-10 m, OSres = 1-2%, b = 0
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Blast design curves
Lngsen q = 0,99, OS=4%, #220 mm, xOS=1000 mm, w=1/x^0,25
r2=0.99885137 DF Adj r2=0.99870779 FitStdErr=0.62106081 Fstat=14783.244
a=63.067198 b=7530.5513

Residuals [5]
1.5 1.5
0.5 0.5
-0.5 -0.5
-1.5 -1.5

90 90
%
passerar,%

Ppile(x)
Andelpassing,

70 70

50 50
Mass

30 30

10 10
0.05 0.5 5 50 500 5000
Maskvidd,
Mesh size, mm
mm

Best case results entered into Kuz-Ram models x50 eqn:

Fitting case: Round Round q Q sANFO x50round A0,8 A0,84
3
parts kg/m kg/hole % mm - -
F1: Nonel normal q 1-N + 2-N 0,722 96,7 0,813 162,5 4,69 4,63
F2: Nonel high q 1-H + 2-H 0,992 91,6 0,813 119,4 4,48 4,48
C3: EDD normal q 3+4 0,776 110,1 0,813 204,3 6,11 6,05
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Blast design curves
Recalculated 100% level with 4 and 7% OS of Nonel rounds
x50 = 10AQ1/6(115/sANFO)19/30/q0,84 in mm Q kg expl. per hole
sANFO% weight strength rel. ANFO, q kg/m3 specific charge.

A = 0,039(RMD+RDI+HF), 0,039 best choice for Lngsen

instead of Kuz-Ram value 0,06. A = 4,56 for Nonel rounds.

Pround(x) = 100/{1+[ln(xmax/x)/ln(xmax/x50)]b} gives sieving

curves if b = 4,17 and xmax = f(b, x50, B och S/B) from eqns.
s50x50round0,75 = 0,2(0,0415/B)0,25 where slope s50 at x50
s50 = b/[4x50roundln(xmax/x50)] for Swebrec function
Kuz-Ram (2005) predicts finer fragmentation (delay effect)
and steeper curve (scatter) for EDD but the reverse is true.
EDD rounds can not be included in design formulas
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Blast design curves: Nonel

region with
Design lower
curves for accuracy as
boulder part
other exaggerated
conditions
may be
calculated
from KCO
formulas.
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Conclusions
Use of a higher specific charge in the Nonel rounds;
0,99 instead of 0,72 kg/m3, had the effect of:
a much finer x50, down from about 160 to 120 mm
Using EDD instead of Nonel initiation, at roughly
normal specific charge had the effect of:
a much coarser x50, up from about 160 to 200 mm
The fragmentation of the EDD initiated rounds
doesnt follow the Nonel design curves.
Kuz-Ram prediction eqn for x50 appears to work well
with minor calibrations of rock mass factor A,
C(A) = A/A = 0,039/0,06 0,65 for Nonel rounds
C(A) 1,0 for EDD rounds means a timing effect
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Conclusions
Previous Vndle design curves apply, with small
changes, also to the Nonel rounds at Lngsen
Project goals met
Tested prediction equations for xmax and b are
missing though. Here a use of oversize estimates
OS = 4-7% allowed fixing a constant b-value for
the Nonel rounds. Then an experimental
connection between xmax and x50 and b gave
reasonable estimates of xmax.
The final Swebrec report (Ouchterlony et al.
2010) contains much more data.
 Blast design curves
Input data for design curves:
Granodiorite Bench height H, m 16,0 Density, kg/m3 1.100
Joints: vertical + Subdrilln. UB, m 1,5 Charge Q, kg/m 6,4
dipping from face Hole dip, 11,2 Charge Q, kg/hole 103
3
Density, kg/m 2.677 Uncharged OL, m 1,7 First row S/B 1,0
UCS, MPa 206 Charge length L, m 16,1 - rows 2-4 S/B 1,3
P-wave, m/s 5.275 Hole diameter, mm 86 No. of rows 4

B S S/B Vb q x50 +1,0 m -32 mm

m m - m3/hole kg/m3 mm % %
2,0 2,6 1,30 89,4 1,15 109 4,4 25,8
2,1 2,7 1,29 97,2 1,06 117 5,0 24,7
2,2 2,9 1,32 110,2 0,94 130 5,7 23,0
2,3 3,0 1,30 118,8 0,87 139 6,3 22,1
2,4 3,1 1,29 127,7 0,81 147 6,9 21,2
2,5 3,3 1,32 142,6 0,72 162 7,8 19,9
2,6 3,4 1,31 152,3 0,68 171 8,4 19,1
2,7 3,5 1,30 162,4 0,64 180 9,1 18,5
2,8 3,6 1,29 172,8 0,60 190 9,8 17,8