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Prediction of Backbreak in Open-Pit Blasting Operations Using the Machine Learning Method

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Abstract

Backbreak is an undesirable phenomenon in blasting operations. It can cause instability of mine walls, falling down of machinery, improper fragmentation, reduced efficiency of drilling, etc. The existence of various effective parameters and their unknown relationships are the main reasons for inaccuracy of the empirical models. Presently, the application of new approaches such as artificial intelligence is highly recommended. In this paper, an attempt has been made to predict backbreak in blasting operations of Soungun iron mine, Iran, incorporating rock properties and blast design parameters using the support vector machine (SVM) method. To investigate the suitability of this approach, the predictions by SVM have been compared with multivariate regression analysis (MVRA). The coefficient of determination (CoD) and the mean absolute error (MAE) were taken as performance measures. It was found that the CoD between measured and predicted backbreak was 0.987 and 0.89 by SVM and MVRA, respectively, whereas the MAE was 0.29 and 1.07 by SVM and MVRA, respectively.

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Abbreviations

SVM:

Support vector machine

MVRA:

Multivariate regression analysis

CoD:

Coefficient of determination

MAE:

Mean absolute error

AI:

Artificial intelligence

ANN:

Artificial neural network

VC:

Vapnik–Chervonenkis

L:

Hole length (m)

S:

Spacing (m)

B:

Burden (m)

T:

Stemming (m)

PF:

Powder factor (kg/ton)

SD:

Specific drilling (m/m3)

BB:

Backbreak (m)

SMO:

Sequential minimal optimization

w :

N-dimensional vector

b :

Scalar value

λ i :

Lagrange multipliers

ξ i :

Slack variables

C :

Error penalty

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Technology and Engineering, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, 313 001, India

    Manoj Khandelwal

  2. Faculty of Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

    M. Monjezi

Authors
  1. Manoj Khandelwal
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  2. M. Monjezi
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Correspondence to Manoj Khandelwal.

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Khandelwal, M., Monjezi, M. Prediction of Backbreak in Open-Pit Blasting Operations Using the Machine Learning Method. Rock Mech Rock Eng 46, 389–396 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-012-0269-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-012-0269-3

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