• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.151-159
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• 2018

Annually, the global production of construction aggregates reaches over 40 billion tons, making aggregates the largest mining sector by volume and value. Currently, the aggregate industry is shifting from sand to hard rock as a result of legislation limiting the extraction of natural sands and gravels. A major implication of this change in the aggregate industry is the need for understanding rock fragmentation and energy absorption to produce more cost-effective aggregates. In this paper, we focused on incorporating dynamic rock and soil mechanics to understand the effects of loading rate and water saturation on the rock fragmentation and energy absorption of three different sandstones (Red, Berea and Buff) with different pore sizes. Rock core samples were prepared in accordance to the ASTM standards for compressive strength testing. Saturated and dry samples were subsequently prepared and fragmented via fast and dynamic compressive strength tests. The particle size distributions of the resulting fragments were subsequently analyzed using mechanical gradation tests. Our results indicate that the rock fragment size generally decreased with increasing loading rate and water content. In addition, the fragment sizes in the larger pore size sample (Buff sandstone) were relatively smaller those in the smaller pore size sample (Red sandstone). Notably, energy absorption decreased with increased loading rate, water content and rock pore size. These results support the conclusion that rock fragment size is positively correlated with the energy absorption of rocks. In addition, the rock fragment size increases as the energy absorption increases. Thus, our data provide insightful information for improving cost-effective aggregate production methods.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.353-362
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• 2004

Prediction of fragmentation in bench blasting is one of the most important factors to establish the production plan. It is widely accepted that fragmentation could be accurately predicted using the Kuz-Ram model in bench blasting. Nevertheless, the model has an ambiguous or subjective aspect in evaluating the model parameters such as joint condition, rock strength, density, burden, explosive strength and spacing. This study proposes a new method to evaluate the parameters of Kuz-Ram model, and the predicted mean fragment sizes using the proposed method are examined by comparing the measured sizes in the field. The results show that the predictions using Kuz-Ram model with the proposed method coincide with field measurements, but Kuz-Ram model does not reflect the in-situ rock condition and hence needs to be improved.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.1-12
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• 2004

In bench blasting, rock fragmentation is one of the most important factors determining productivity. Rock fragmentation could be affected by various conditions and these were hewn that rock joint conditions and in-situ block sizes were the biggest effect on it. This research is focused on what or how to influence on rock fragmentation according to relation between blasting conditions and the in-situ rock conditions such as rock joint conditions and in-situ block size. Field measurements were carried out in 3 open pit limestone mines, where in-situ rock conditions and blasting conditions were fully investigated. The results show that the parameters interact with blasting conditions complicatedly and especially in-situ block size has bigger effects. Dip direction of major joint set also can affect on fragmentation. Mean fragment size become smallest when dip direction of major joint set is about $30^{\circ}$ with the bench direction. The reason is considered to be come from difference of propagation paths of elastic wave.