Investigation on techniques to control structural damage due to blasting activities

Abstract

During a blasting process, velocities of the particles in the path of wave propagation are risen, as a result, the energy left over from a blasting process transmits to the surrounding. However, damage that could occur to structures depends on the received structural vibration and may vary with soil type, soil structure-interaction and characteristics of a structure. It is necessary to investigate possible techniques that can be used to reduce the blasting effect on structures. This paper presents an investigation on structural performance and effective techniques to control ground vibration and damage to structures. In the current study, quarry blasting vibration was considered. Two brick walls having the size of 800 mm x 600 mm were cast in a selected quarry site. One of them was with a control technique; the foundation of the wall was protected by a trench (filled with pure rubber) nearby the wall. The other one was used as the reference wall. Bricks used for wall construction were scaled down to the 4: 1. Ground vibration at the structure was monitored for both test wall and reference wall by using a seismograph. Effectiveness of the control technique to control the damage to structure due to blast vibration is discussed in this paper.