Prediction of Blast-Induced Vibration Parameters for Soil Sites

In the recent past, the topic of blast loads on structures has received considerable attention from researchers. Site-specific empirical models for blast-induced vibration parameters like peak particle velocity (PPV), peak pressure (PP), peak particle displacement (PPD), and pore pressure ratio (PPR) are commonly used for blast-resistant designs. However, these empirical models do not consider the variation in soil properties, e.g., the degree of saturation and uncertain in situ conditions. Hence, in this paper, a total of 120 pieces of blast data from various soil sites have been collected and used to propose a generalized empirical model for estimating blast-induced vibration parameters by considering three basic soil properties, namely, unit weight, degree of saturation, and Young’s modulus. Standard errors and coefficients of correlation for the prediction of blast-induced vibration parameters by various empirical models are obtained with respect to the observed soil field data. The present empirical model has been compared with the models of other researchers and found to be in good agreement for specific cases. The present model, having maximum coefficient of correlation and minimum standard error, can be directly used in the calculation of blast loading for design. The present model has also been validated for various degrees of saturation. It has been found that the present model predicts fairly for fully saturated soils irrespective of soil type, and predicts higher values (critical values for design) for partially saturated soils. In the absence of field blast vibration data because of economic, safety, and environmental constraints, the present model will evaluate the blast vibration parameters by using only three basic soil properties.