Development in Initiation System and Computational Techniques for Monitoring Environmental Effects due to Blasting

There are various products and development in initiation system of explosives for blasting which are reviewed in this paper. Ordinary detonators, instantaneous electric detonators, short delay or millisecond electric detonators, cord relays, sequential blasting machine, nonelectric detonators and electronic detonators are used for initiation system. Selection of each initiation system has pros and cons on environmental effect of flyrock, ground vibration and Air Over Pressure (AOP). A case study of a limestone quarry from Jordan using Nonel detonators is described. The concept of electronic detonators with signature due to ground vibration is explained which is the future for predicting blast performance. Computational techniques – Artificial Neural Network (ANN) with other algorithms for predicting environmental effects due to blasting in granite quarries of Malaysia are described. These computational models through methodology of training and testing datasets outperform in predicting environmental effects due to blasting as compared to empirical equations for respective parameters. Illustrations of flyrock prediction using imperialist competitive algorithm and ANN, an expert ANN based on particle swarm optimization for fly rock and ground vibration prediction and a neuro-genetic technique for estimating air overpressure due to blasting have been given in this paper.

Blast initiation system, Electronic detonator, Flyrock, Ground vibration, Air overpressure, Computational techniques