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Microseism Induced by Transient Release of In Situ Stress During Deep Rock Mass Excavation by Blasting

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Abstract

During deep rock mass excavation with the method of drill and blast, accompanying the secession of rock fragments and the formation of a new free surface, in situ stress on this boundary is suddenly released within several milliseconds, which is termed the transient release of in situ stress. In this process, enormous strain energy around the excavation face is instantly released in the form of kinetic energy and it inevitably induces microseismic events in surrounding rock masses. Thus, blasting excavation-induced microseismic vibrations in high-stress rock masses are attributed to the combined action of explosion and the transient release of in situ stress. The intensity of stress release-induced microseisms, which depends mainly on the magnitude of the in situ stress and the dimension of the excavation face, is comparable to that of explosion-induced vibrations. With the methods of time–energy density analysis, amplitude spectrum analysis, and finite impulse response (FIR) digital filter, microseismic vibrations induced by the transient release of in situ stress were identified and separated from recorded microseismic signals during a blast of deep rock masses in the Pubugou Hydropower Station. The results show that the low-frequency component in the microseismic records results mainly from the transient release of in situ stress, while the high-frequency component originates primarily from explosion. In addition, a numerical simulation was conducted to demonstrate the occurrence of microseismic events by the transient release of in situ stress, and the results seem to have confirmed fairly well the separated vibrations from microseismic records.

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Abbreviations

a :

Scale parameter (wavelet transform)

B :

Drilled burden

b :

Time parameter (wavelet transform)

C f :

Velocity of crack propagation

C p :

P-wave velocity in the rock mass

C u :

Velocity of rarefaction waves in detonation gases

C ψ :

Admissibility condition

D :

Velocity of detonation

d :

Distance from the loading face

d b :

Blasthole diameter

d c :

Charge diameter

E :

Elastic modulus

e :

Elastic strain energy density

E(b):

Time–energy density function

E′(b):

Local time–energy density function

f(t):

Function of vibration records

F(ω):

Amplitude spectrum of the vibration record function

k :

Parameter describing the propagating media

L 1 :

Charge length

L 2 :

Stemming length

L 2(R):

Space of all finite energy functions

P b(t):

Blasting load variation versus time

P b0 :

Initial explosion pressure

P be(t):

Equivalent blasting load on the excavation face

P r(t):

Release process of the in situ stress

r e :

Size of the loading face

S :

Spacing between adjacent blastholes

T :

Time

t b :

Beginning time of the in situ stress release

t d :

Duration of the blasting load

t r :

Rising time of the blasting load

U :

Elastic strain energy

U 1 :

Elastic strain energy included in the excavation zone before excavation

U 2 :

Elastic strain energy included in the stress-affected zone before excavation

U 2′:

Elastic strain energy included in the stress-affected zone after excavation

U exp :

Energy of explosion

V b :

Initial blasthole volume

v g :

Gas venting velocity

V g(t):

Gas volume at any time

V r :

Volume of rock

v r :

Peak particle velocity at an observation point

v r0 :

Peak particle velocity on the excavation face

W f (a, b):

Continuous wavelet transform of the vibration record function

α :

Attenuation exponent of velocity

γ :

Ratio of the specific heats for the detonation gases

ΔG :

Elastic strain energy required to dynamically fracture the rock mass

ΔK :

Kinetic energy

Δt :

Duration of the in situ stress release

ΔU :

Elastic strain energy released in specific excavation footage

μ :

Poisson’s ratio

ρ e :

Explosive density

ρ r :

Rock mass density

σ :

Stress

σ 1 :

Maximum principal stress

σ 2 :

Intermediate principal stress

σ 3 :

Minimum principal stress

σ L :

Longitudinal in situ stress

σ T :

Transversal in situ stress

ψ(t):

Wavelet basis

\( \hat{\psi }(w) \) :

Fourier transform of the wavelet basis

ψ a,b (t):

Analyzing wavelet

ω :

Circular frequency

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Chinese National Programs for Fundamental Research and Development (973 Program) (nos. 2010CB732003 and 2011CB013501), the Chinese National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (no. 51125037), the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (nos. 50909077 and 51179138), and the Academic Award Nominee for Excellent Ph.D. Candidates Funded by Wuhan University (no. T2011206009).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, People’s Republic of China

    Jianhua Yang, Wenbo Lu, Ming Chen, Peng Yan & Chuangbing Zhou

  2. Key Laboratory of Rock Mechanics in Hydraulic Structural Engineering, Ministry of Education, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, People’s Republic of China

    Jianhua Yang, Wenbo Lu, Ming Chen, Peng Yan & Chuangbing Zhou

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  1. Jianhua Yang
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Correspondence to Wenbo Lu.

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Yang, J., Lu, W., Chen, M. et al. Microseism Induced by Transient Release of In Situ Stress During Deep Rock Mass Excavation by Blasting. Rock Mech Rock Eng 46, 859–875 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-012-0308-0

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