Rock fracture mechanism of buffer blasting with cushion layer at the borehole bottom

This study primarily investigates the rock fracture mechanism of bottom cushion layer blasting and explores the effects of the bottom cushion layer on rock fragmentation.It involves analyses of the evolution patterns of blasting stress,characteristics of crack distribution,and rock fracture features in the specimens.First,blasting model experiments were carried out using the dynamic caustics principle to investigate the influence of bottom cushion layers and initiation methods on the integrity of the bottom rock mass.The experimental results indicate that the combined use of bottom cushion layers and inverse initiation effectively protects the integrity of the bottom rock mass.Subsequently,the process of stress wave propagation and dynamic crack propagation in rocks was simulated using the continuum-discontinuum element method(CDEM)and the Landau explosion source model,with varying thicknesses of bottom cushion layers.The numerical simulation results indicate that with increasing cushion thickness,the absorption of energy generated by the explosion becomes more pronounced,resulting in fewer cracks in the bottom rock mass.This illustrates the positive role of the cushion layer in protecting the integrity of the bottom rock mass.

Effects of the initiation position on the damage and fracture characteristics of linear-charge blasting in rock

To study the effects of the initiation position on the damage and fracture characteristics of linear-charge blasting, blasting model experiments were conducted in this study using computed tomography scanning and three-dimensional reconstruction methods. The fractal damage theory was used to quantify the crack distribution and damage degree of sandstone specimens after blasting. The results showed that regardless of an inverse or top initiation, due to compression deformation and sliding frictional resistance, the plugging medium of the borehole is effective. The energy of the explosive gas near the top of the borehole is consumed. This affects the effective crushing of rocks near the top of the borehole, where the extent of damage to Sections Ⅰ and Ⅱ is less than that of Sections Ⅲ and Ⅳ. In addition, the analysis revealed that under conditions of top initiation, the reflected tensile damage of the rock at the free face of the top of the borehole and the compression deformation of the plug and friction consume more blasting energy, resulting in lower blasting energy efficiency for top initiation. As a result, the overall damage degree of the specimens in the top-initiation group was significantly smaller than that in the inverse-initiation group. Under conditions of inverse initiation, the blasting energy efficiency is greater, causing the specimen to experience greater damage. Therefore, in the engineering practice of rock tunnel cut blasting, to utilize blasting energy effectively and enhance the effects of rock fragmentation, using the inverse-initiation method is recommended. In addition, in three-dimensional(3D) rock blasting, the bottom of the borehole has obvious end effects under the conditions of inverse initiation, and the crack distribution at the bottom of the borehole is trumpet-shaped. The occurrence of an end effect in the 3D linear-charge blasting model experiment is related to the initiation position and the blocking condition.