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IN
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communication.
Much later on, the Asians developed a
very crude projectile weapon using
their explosive technology. The Arabs
stole the Asian's knowledge and
brought the knowledge westward. The
era of explosives had begun.
2 HISTORY OF EXPLOSIVES
An explosive can be a substance or a
device that produces a volume of
rapidly expanding gas that exerts
sudden pressure on its surroundings.
There are three common types of
explosives: chemical, mechanical, and
nuclear. Mechanical explosions are
physical reactions, for example the
effects of compressed air.
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Ground vibrations
Blasting essentially causes three
different types of vibration; namely P
waves or compression waves and S
waves or sheer waves that travel
through the rock, and R waves or
Rayleigh waves which travel along the
surface.
The intensity of these
vibrations is generally controlled by
the limiting criteria PPV, or Peak
Particle Velocity.
A large amount of research has been
done in this area and a number of
relationships have been developed
between the explosive charge and the
value of PPV at a certain distance from
the blast.
PPV = K ( R/W )
Where:
(1)
(2)
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= - 1.22
(3)
= - 1.6
(4)
Air blast
In every blast a portion of the total
blast energy escapes into the
atmosphere.
The
temporary
overpressure
(pressure
above
atmosphere) produced by the explosion
is emitted as a wave which travels at
the speed of sound. The arrival of this
wave at any point may be sensed as
noise, or shaking or rattling of loose
objects.
Sydney Water
K = 1143 and
Structures
Commercial and Industrial Buildings
Houses and low rise residential buildings
Historic Buildings
Utility Services
Slopes and retaining walls
Water retaining Structures
Computer installations
Human comfort
Fresh Concrete (less than 2 days old)
Concrete between 2 and 8 days old
Concrete more than 8 days old
(4)
Po is the reference
pressure of 2x10 8 kPa.
Max. ppv
25 mm/s
10 mm/s
2 mm/s
35 mm/s
35 mm/s
13 mm/s
5 mm/s
2-5 mm/s
5 mm/s
25 mm/s
50 mm/s
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(5)
Effect
Structural damage
Windows fail
Some failure of poorly fitted window
panes
Some prestressed window panes fail
Windows and small objects shake
Avoid disturbance to people
Noise
Noise is a nuisance factor rather than a
damaging influence and the US Bureau
of Mines has specified safe standards
as presented in Table 3 (after Siskin et
al 1980).
Problems can occur from blasting in built
up or enclosed areas where the air blast
may be magnified and reflected. This is
overcome by correct stemming and use of
sand bags blasting mats over the blast
holes.
(6)
Safe level
Flyrock
Flyrock can be a very dangerous side
effect of blasting. The very nature of
the rock blasting mechanism of an
explosive where the expanding gas
propagates fractures and moved the
broken rock creates the opportunity for
small fragments to travel at high speed
and for considerable distances.
Table 3. Noise limits from blasting (after
Siskin et al 1980)
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PCF
PPV = 1090(D/W0.5)-1.39
(7)
Explosives
PPV = 1483 (D/W0.5)-1.25
(8)
Charge
(g)
60
10
20
30
(No Canopy)
107
100
96
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EXAMPLES
PCF has carried out a number of
successful projects recently which
include:
1. Underground plant rooms at
North Point Station on part
of the Kowloon Line for the
MTRC in Hong Kong.
Table 6 Noise
operations
values
Range
Mean
from
PCF
dBA
(@ 50m)
50 - 68
59
4. Breaking
of
boulders
adjacent to highways at
Tandys Lane in NSW and
Gunalda
Bypass
in
Queensland.
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basement to form
underground carpark
Bondi Junction.
4
an
at
12.
CONCLUSION
13.
14.
REFERENECES
1. Andre G.G. (l887) A Treatise on
Mining Machinery
2. Australian Standards (1983) SAA
Explosives Code. AS2187 part 2
3. British Standards Institution 1984.
Guide to evaluation of human
exposure to vibration in buildings
(1Hz 80 Hz). BS 6472
4. Brown G I. The Big Bang: A
History of Explosives
5. Crozier Ronald D.
Guns,
Gunpowder
&
Saltpetre.
Faversham Society
6. Hong Kong Mines Department.
Assessment of stability of slopes
subject to blasting vibration. GEO
Report No 15
7. Lowe, P.T. and McQueen L.B.
1990. Construction of the North
Head Ocean Outfall Tunnel.
Seventh Australian Tunnelling
Conference, Sydney, September
1990. Inst Engineers, Australia,
Canberra, Australia
8. Lees DJ (2000) Constraints for
tunnel construction in the urban
environment and how to overcome
them. AUCTA Workshop
Planning for Tunnelling in the
Urban
Environment.
Preconference Symposium of
Geoeng 2000
9. Lees DJ(2001) History of the
Rock Drill. AUCTApril 2001
10. Lees
DJ(2001)
Rockdrill
Develoment in Australia. AUCT
Nov 2001
11. Lundberg,
N.
1973
The
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
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