Abstract:
Quarrying industry in Sri Lanka has expanded widely due to the rapid increase in
the demand for basic of quarries are
materia] in the construction industry. Thus, large number
operating throughout the country. Major concerns related to these
activities are the social impact and the impact on workers' health and safety. While
blasting is carried out, blasted rock fragments could be projected out of the set
boundaries (flyrock) and is a threat to human safety. Although precautionary
and mitigation techniques have been in use for many years, impacts on
workers safety and health have not shown any resulting reduction. This study
focusses on
raw
measures
many strategies to control flyrock and introducing controllable
parameters (e.g. powder factor) based on past reports of accidents and related
engineering parameters. Three different areas were selected based on the
availability of data, considering consequences, distances and the powder factor for
the study. Accordingly, collected data was tabulated for ease of analysis and buffer
the distance for focused area was calculated statistically. Relationship of area of
hazardous zones with different explosive charge was determined using statistical
tools correlation co-efficient and R square and allowable powder factor for
calculated buffer zone was determined based on statistical data. Recommendations
and conclusions were made based on the calculated data.
Citation:
Ranathunga, R.M.S.S.L., Gurusinghe, A.S., Kajenthiran, V., Daluwatta, W.S., Hemalal, P.V.A., Dharmaratne, P.G.R., & Ratnayake, N.P. (2019). Flyrock generation and social impact mitigation in local quarrying. In D.M.D.O.K. Dissanayake & G.V.I. Samaradivakara (Eds.), Proceedings of International Symposium on Earth Resources Management & Environment 2019 (pp. 33-38). Department of Earth Resources Engineering, University of Moratuwa.