ABSTRACT
The relevance of fragmentation study in blast modeling is briefly reviewed. It is indicated that in blasting, the energy consumption in fragmenting rock can be described as simple as that of basic comminution theory, or by one as complicated as the Kuz-Ram model which takes into account parameters of blasthole drilling, explosives loading and rock mass structure. Because of the environmental constraints, modeling should be made site specific and fragmentation should be measured for verification and calibration. In the past, ICI has tested the sieving and hand digitization methods and has found that an accurate but less labor intensive method is more suitable for use in the field for analyzing a full scale production blast. Currently, an optical analysis method, PowerSieve™ , has been developed within ICI for fragmentation assessment. The PowerSieve™ image analysis is based on mathematical morphology. Although the optical method does not provide the volumetric information as those obtained from sieving, the convenience it offers has enabled the user to fully analyze a blast design and to refine the customized blasting model.
