ABSTRACT
Blasting of large charges for quarry operations results in strong ground motion which may cause damage to structures in its vicinity. Precautions are therefore needed in the design and construction of such structures. Peak ground velocity provides and excellent criteria for assessing the damage due to the blast effects. However, for estimation of dynamic forces for the design of such structures, data on ground acceleration occasioned by the blast is required. This paper describes a study in which the dynamic forces for the design of structures near a proposed lime stone quarry were determined based on acceleration-time history data recorded during field blast tests. Acceleration response spectra was obtained from the recorded accelerograms. Also an equation was developed for this particular site for estimation of the peak horizontal ground accelerations in terms of the amount of charge per delay and the distance, which was subsequently used for modifying the ordinates of response spectra to account for the effect of distance of the structure from the blast and variation in the amount of maximum charge per delay.
