Effects of Mine Blasting on Residential Structures
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 19, Issue 3
Abstract
Blasting is common in the coal industry to remove rock overburden so that the exposed coal can be mechanically excavated. The ground vibrations and air blast produced by blasting are often felt by residents surrounding the mines. There has been a trend for regulatory authorities, especially those concerned with the environment, to impose low limits on blast vibration levels in response to community pressure, based on human perception and response to vibration. This paper reports the findings of an extensive study on a house which was located adjacent to a coal mine. The house was monitored for over and was subjected to ground peak particle velocity (PPV) ranging from . The house was instrumented with accelerometers to measure its dynamic response due to blasting and it was also monitored for cracks before and after each blast. Based on this study, ground motion amplifications along the height of the structure have been established. A simplified methodology presented in this paper has been used to estimate the ground PPV at which cracking is likely.
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Acknowledgments
The writers would like to acknowledge the input from the research team, namely, Mr. Thomas Lewandowski of Terrock Pty Ltd. and Professor Adrian Page, Dr. Stephen Fityus, and Mr. Goran Simundic of Newcastle University. The writers would also like to acknowledge the financial support to this project from the Australian Coal Association Research Program (ACARP Project No. UNSPECIFIEDC9040) and the Australian Research Council (ARC Grant No. UNSPECIFIEDLP0211407).
References
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Information
Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 19 • Issue 3 • August 2005
Pages: 222 - 228
Copyright
© 2005 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 11, 2003
Accepted: Sep 4, 2003
Published online: Aug 1, 2005
Published in print: Aug 2005
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