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Energy Efficiency in Rock Blasting

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Energy Efficiency in the Minerals Industry

Part of the book series: Green Energy and Technology ((GREEN))

Abstract

Ten production blasts and one single-hole confined blast were monitored in two quarries in order to assess the measurable forms in which the energy delivered by the explosive is transformed in rock blasting. The seismic wave energy, the kinetic energy, and the fracture energy transferred in the blasting process were determined using the seismic field from seismograph records, the initial velocity of the blasted rock face obtained from high-speed video footages, and the fragment size distributions from image analysis of the muck pile material, respectively. The maximum total energy measured accounts for not more than 26% of the available explosive energy, if this is rated as the heat of explosion, though lower figures are usually obtained. The values measured for each of the energy components range from 2 to 6% of the total energy available for the fragmentation energy, 1–3% for the seismic energy, and 3–21% for the kinetic energy. For the confined shot hole, the seismic energy was 9% of the heat of explosion.

This chapter is an adapted version of Sanchidrián et al. [45]. With permission of the copyright owner.

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Acknowledgements

The experimental work was partially funded by the European Union under contract no. G1RD-CT-2000-00438, “Less Fines Production in Aggregate and Industrial Minerals Industry”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    José A. Sanchidrián, Pablo Segarra & Lina M. López

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  1. José A. Sanchidrián
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  2. Pablo Segarra
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  3. Lina M. López
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Correspondence to José A. Sanchidrián .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mining and Nuclear Engineering, Missouri University Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri, USA

    Kwame Awuah-Offei

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Sanchidrián, J.A., Segarra, P., López, L.M. (2018). Energy Efficiency in Rock Blasting. In: Awuah-Offei, K. (eds) Energy Efficiency in the Minerals Industry. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54199-0_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54199-0_6

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