The Robert M.

Buchan 1
Department of Mining

The effect of delay time on fragmentation

distribution through small and medium scale
testing and analysis

by
P. Katsabanis and O. Omidi
 Recent small scale set up
• Material: Commercial grout
– UCS approximately 50 MPa
– P wave velocity: 4000 m/s
– Density: 2.34 g/cm3
• Geometry
– Block Dimensions: 60 cm x 40 cm x 25 cm
– Borehole diameter: 12 mm
– Burden: 7.5 cm
– Spacing: 10.5 cm
• Boreholes charged with:
– Detonating cord (2 strands of 50 grain/ft)
– Water as a coupling medium
– Some tests had copper liners
• Delays between holes
– up to 200 ms: detonating cord
– larger than 200 ms: using sub millisecond electronic detonators (Orica)
New work
 Recent data (Omidi, 2015)
90

80

70

60
x50, mm

50 x50
40 fit x50
x50 lined
30
fit x50 lined
20

10

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Delay Time, ms
 Slope at average size
0.03

0.025

0.02
Slope at x50

0.015
Swebrec
0.01 Rosin Rammler

0.005

0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
Delay time, mus
 Slope of the x80-x20 secant
2.5
Average slope through x80, x20

1.5
Swebrec
1 Experiment
Rosin Rammler

0.5

0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
Delay time, mus
 Effect of delay on 50% and 80% passing sizes

180
160
140
120
100
Size, mm

80 x50, mm
x80, mm
60
40
20
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Time, mus
 Effect of delay on 10%, 50% and 80% passing
sizes
180
160
140
120
100
Size, mm

x10, mm
80
x50, mm
60 x80, mm
40
20
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
Time, mus
Data from Johansson and Petropoulos
80.0

70.0

60.0

50.0
x50, mm

40.0
x50
30.0 fit

20.0

10.0

0.0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
Delay Time, ms
 Uniformity vs. delay time
2.5
Slope through x20, x80, 100*mm^(-1)

Grout
1.5
Fit grout
Cu lined
1
Johansson, r1
Johansson, r2
0.5 Granodiorite

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
Delay Time, ms
 x80 and x20 vs. delay time
160

140

120

100
Particle Size, mm

x80
80
fit x80
x20
60
fit x20

40

20

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Delay Time, ms
 Normalizing the old USBM data
40

35

30
Normalized average size

25

20
reduced scale, x80
15 reduced scale x50

10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Time, ms/m of burden
 Summary
• Simultaneous initiation or very short delays –
coarse fragmentation
• Development of the small sizes appears to be in
time less than 200 ms.
• X50 does not provide clear information.
• Larger sizes, such as the x80 show an optimum
fragmentation at some intermediate delay time.
• In the present (small scale) tests the critical time
was 0.6-0.8 ms
 Time of detachment of burden, Tmin
• 0.6 ms is well past stress wave interactions
• Stagg and Rholl have suggested a mechanism
of accumulated damage.
• For this to occur the burden must not be
detached before a subsequent hole detonates.
• Hence the arrival and opening of cracks at the
face of the blast signify the termination of the
above process.
Assuming this breakage
 Key issues
• Time for stress wave interaction
• Time of detachment of burden
• Action of gases
 Important processes
• Interaction between stress waves – before 200
ms
• Fragmentation optimization: 0.6 ms
• Time for radial cracks to reach free face:
– 0.3 – 0.5 ms using Zhang’s crack velocities of 210-
400 m/s
– 0.4 ms using Stagg and Rholl’s formula
 X50 data (Omidi, 2015)
90

80

70

60
x50, mm

50 x50
40 fit x50
x50 lined
30
fit x50 lined
20

10

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Delay Time, ms
 Small bench
• Hole diameter: 12mm
• Hole depth: 60cm
• Burden: 20 cm
• Spacing: 30 cm
• Collar: 20 cm
• Explosive: Detonating Cord (80g/m)
 2 ms delay between holes
Frame: 6ms after initiation of 1st hole

0.5 ms delay between holes

Frame: 6ms after initiation of 1st hole
 Conclusion
• Small scale tests suggest there is influence of delay time on the
larger sizes of blast induced fragmentation as well as on the
uniformity of the fragmentation.
• The larger sizes of the blast, such as the x80, show a clear optimum
at a delay time
• The smaller sizes do not show a clear relationship with delay.
• Uniformity of the fragmentation, defined as the slope between the
80% and 20% passing sizes, shows a clear optimum value.
• It appears that the optimum delay time is related to the time at
which the previous hole extends radial cracks to the free face.
• Tests using copper tubes as liners in the boreholes, to inhibit gas
penetration, showed that x80 increased with delay time, while
fragmentation was similar in the short delay times.