Rational crushing of mineral raw materials by well charges as a factor of environmental safety of blasting works in quarries
Authors: Kolesnik V , Pavlychenko A , Kholodenko T , Kirichenko A 
Published: May 2021

Purpose. Improving the environmental safety of blasting operations in quarries for the extraction of non-metallic and construction materials based on their rational explosive crushing, aimed at reducing the effect of overgrinding, accompanied by the formation of fine fractions of materials and significant dust emissions. The research methodology provided a theoretical analysis of the destruction processes of a rock massif by well charges of explosives on the basis of calculations of shock adiabats of an explosive wave in rocks at different speeds of detonation of explosives. Experimental verification of the identified patterns was performed by assessing the quality of blasting by the particle size distribution of the rock in the collapse. Research results. The scientific and practical task of ensuring rational explosive crushing of materials in quarries with the use of elongated borehole charges has been solved. Mechanisms for the destruction of rock massifs and the peculiarities of the distribution of destruction zones by dispersed composition have been established, which contributes to the reduction of dust emissions into the atmosphere to an acceptable level of environmental safety of blasting operations in quarries. Comparative estimates of the shock load during the explosion of the explosive charge for the main rocks at different levels of the rate of detonation of charges are given. The dependence of the volume of overgrinding rock in the zone of its adjacency to the charge on the detonation velocity of explosives has been established. An experimental verification of the identified patterns in the current quarry by assessing the quality of blasting by the particle size distribution of rock mass in its collapse after experimental explosions with different parameters is done. Scientific novelty. The multiphase process of rock destruction by explosion was investigated by the calculated determination of the parameters of the shock adiabats of the blast wave in different rocks and at different detonation velocities of explosives. It is shown that during the destruction of a rock mass by the explosion of an elongated borehole charge of explosives, several specific zones of destruction are formed, the characteristics of which differ in particle size distribution. The area of controlled crushing is highlighted, where the intensity of rock destruction can be changed by adjusting the parameters of the explosive load and the area of little or almost unregulated crushing. The possibility of managing the process of dust formation and, accordingly, the level of environmental safety of blasting works in quarries for the extraction of non-metallic and construction materials is substantiated. Practical meaning. The identified patterns and provisions to reduce the effect of mineral overgrinding were used in the development of measures to improve the environmental safety of blasting in the quarry, which, in particular, provided an increase in well spacing in the range up to 3.0-3.4 m and reduce specific energy consumption from 1.27 g/cm3 to 0.97 g/cm3.