Blast vibration control in the presence of delay scatter and random fluctuations between blastholes

It is becoming increasingly important, from an environmental viewpoint, to minimize vibrations induced in urban dwellings by blasting. The present study illustrates how the delay interval between blastholes can be chosen to control and minimize the vibration energy within the structural response band of most houses. In particular, it is shown that the only possibility of reducing such energy is to employ a delay interval in the range 10–35 ms. However, the induced vibrations are also dependent upon the accuracy of the delay initiators as well as the level of random fluctuations between each blasthole signature. It is shown that only very accurate electronic delays give the possibility of utilizing fully the delay sequence in order to control structural vibrations. If the vibration emission from each blasthole is totally uncorrelated with that of any other blasthole then the resulting amplitude spectrum of the blast will be totally unpredictable. This situation occurs irrespective of the delay initiation sequence or its accuracy. Under these conditions it is impossible to predict the blast-induced energy lying within the structural response band.