ABSTRACT
Rock fragmentation in which the fragment size distribution of blasted rock material used in the quarry and mining industry as an index to estimate the productivity of blasting activity. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of burden to hole diameter ratio on rock fragmentation induced by blasting. Numerical investigation was carried out by utilizing the Discrete Element Method (DEM) and Particle Blast Method (PBM) approaches in LS-DYNA software, on the response of rock fragmentation. In bench blasting simulation, the rock media was modelled using DEM and the blast loading was modelled using PBM. Parametric study was carried out on the hole diameter and burden was kept constant. The comparison of rock fragmentation distribution has been made between numerical analysis and fieldwork data. It was observed that uniformity index increases with the decreases in burden to hole diameter ratio. It can be concluded that by increasing hole diameter without changing burden will increase the powder factor which in turn yields finer fragmentation. The numerical model has successfully showed the crack propagation of rock which can form the rock fragments and helps to predict fragment size distribution of rock.
