## 5 Discussion and Conclusions  
The NIS distributed along the blasthole axis significantly affect the 3D dynamic response of rock subjected to blasting. Using a theoretical model, this study initially examined the distribution of hoop stress around the blasthole, considering NIS distributed along the blasthole axis. Then, an RHT model was calibrated using the results of blasting experiments provided in the literature. Building on this, the study investigated the impact of blast loading and NIS distributed along the blasthole axis on rock damage patterns under different lateral pressure coefficients. The findings suggest that when determining a reasonable blasthole spacing and the shallow-borehole crack-filling scheme within the coal pillar, the influences of NIS distributed along the blasthole axis and the lateral pressure coefficient should be considered. The following conclusions were obtained. (1) When the action of isotropic and anisotropic confining pressures, for the cross section along the blasthole axis, the peak values of hoop compressive stress for locations equidistant from the blasthole's center gradually increased with the rising of NIS. The damage extent exhibited a nonlinear decrease, which was smaller than that caused by the stress-free condition. Therefore, the extent of the cracks corresponding to the maximum confining pressure should be considered when determining the blasthole spacing due to the influences of NIS distributed along the blasthole axis. (2) For the cross sections perpendicular to the blasthole axis, with a constant in-situ stress in the vertical direction, an increase in the lateral pressure coefficient from 0.25 to 2 caused a 19-33 MPa increase in the maximum hoop compressive stresses at the vertical monitoring points, and the corresponding damage ranges exhibited an obvious decrease of approximately 49-64 cm. However, the peak values of hoop compressive stress at the horizontal monitoring points indicated insignificant changes, about 4 MPa=9 MPa, and the variations of the corresponding damage ranges were within 10 cm. When necessary, the shallow-borehole crack-filling scheme within the coal pillar should be developed considering the combined influence of NIS distributed along the blasthole axis and the lateral pressure coefficient. This paper represents an initial exploration of the 3D dynamic response of rock subjected to the coupling effect of NIS distributed along the blasthole axis and blast loading. Further research is required to expand on these findings. For instance, the effect of the initial blasting position on non-uniform damage along the blasthole axis can also be considered. Field blasting tests should be carried out to validate numerical simulation results. Figure 15: The curves about peak values of hoop compressive stress at monitoring points for \(S_{1},S_{2},\)\(S_{3},\) and \(S_{4}\) under isotropic and anisotropic confining pressures: (a) point A; (b) point B. **Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, G.W. and J.B.; Funding acquisition, J.B.; Investigation, G.W. ; Methodology, G.W. ; Supervision, N.M. and X.Z. ; Writing--original draft, G.W. ; Writing--review and editing, J.B. and N.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. **Funding:** The research described in this paper was financially supported by the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Tianchi Introduction Plan (No. 2024 XGYTCYC03), the Key Research and Development Special Tasks of Xinjiang Province (No. 2022B01051), and the Key projects of the Joint Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U21A20107). **Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable. **Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable. **Data Availability Statement:** The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy. **Acknowledgments:** The authors are grateful to the China University of Mining and Technology. **Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflicts of interest.