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Seismic Rock Mass Response to Tunnel Development with Destress Blasting in High-Stress Conditions

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Abstract

The main infrastructure tunnels of the Andes Norte Project, New Mining Level (NML) of CODELCO’s Chilean mining division El Teniente, are constructed in a complex environment from a geological and geomechanical perspective. The geological structural conditions and the stress field of the surroundings play an important role in the seismic activity induced by the excavations. Preconditioning techniques applied to rock masses can be applied on a massive scale to alter a significant volume of rock and/or on a local scale around the excavation. The latter approach has been implemented in the Andes North Project incorporating explosive charges confined and detonated simultaneously or with a time delay with tunnel development blasting. This paper describes the design and operational implementation of the destress blasting technique in the personal access tunnels (TAP) and conveyor belt tunnels (TC). The geological, geomechanical design and operation of the tunnels are analyzed in terms of the seismic response of the rock mass to tunnel development with and without destress blasting. One benefit measured after applying destress blasting is the response of post-blasting seismicity. Results demonstrate a higher speed of decay and an opportunity for reducing re-entry time when the destress blasting technique is used.

Highlights

  • Development of tunnels under high-stress conditions.

  • Implementation of the destress blasting during the development of tunnels.

  • Destress blasting grouped the mechanism of seismic events into strainburst type.

  • Destressing increases the speed of decay of seismicity after development blasts.

  • Destressing reduces the seismic hazard after development blasts.

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Data availability statement

The data analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to company confidential information.

Abbreviations

\(M_{w}\) :

Moment magnitude

\(E\) :

Seismic energy

\(DB\) :

Destress blasting

\(R\) :

Stress ratio

\(\sigma_{1}\) :

Major principal stress

\(\sigma_{3}\) :

Minor principal stress

\(M_{c}\) :

Magnitude of completeness

\(n\) :

Number of seismic events

\(\Delta t\) :

Time period

\(t_{R}\) :

Recording time period

\(M\) :

Magnitude

\(\gamma\) :

Specific weight

\(V_{s}\) :

S Wave velocity

\(V_{p}\) :

P Wave velocity

\(\eta\) :

Porosity

\(UCS\) :

Uniaxial compressive strength of the intact rock

\(Ti\) :

Indirect tensile strength

\(Ei\) :

Elastic modulus of the intact rock

\(E/UCS\) :

Elastic modulus ratio

\(\nu\) :

Poisson ratio

\(\sigma ci\) :

Hoek-Brown uniaxial compressive strength of the intact rock

\(mi\) :

Hoek–Brown parameter of the intact rock

\(\sigma t\) :

Direct tensile strength

\(c\) :

Cohesion

\(\varphi\) :

Friction angle

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank all the people of the Geotechnical  Group of the Andes Norte Project of the El Teniente division who have contributed in one way or another to this investigation. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support from basal CONICYT project AFB180004/AFB220002 of the Advanced Mining Technology Center (AMTC).

Funding

This study was funded from basal CONICYT project AFB180004/AFB220002 of Advanced Mining Technology Center (AMTC).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Andes Norte Project, Vice-Presidency of Projects, Codelco, Santiago, Chile

    W. Rodríguez & P. Landeros

  2. Department of Mining Engineering, Advanced Mining Technology Center (AMTC), Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile

    J. A. Vallejos

Authors
  1. W. Rodríguez
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  2. J. A. Vallejos
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  3. P. Landeros
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Contributions

WR, JAV and PL designed the study, performed the analyses and results and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to J. A. Vallejos.

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Washington Rodriguez declares that he has no conflict of interest. Javier A. Vallejos declares that he has no conflict of interest. Pablo Landeros declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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Rodríguez, W., Vallejos, J.A. & Landeros, P. Seismic Rock Mass Response to Tunnel Development with Destress Blasting in High-Stress Conditions. Rock Mech Rock Eng 56, 1621–1643 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-022-03171-5

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