Damage on masonry walls due to blast vibration

Abstract

When the energy left over from a blasting process transmits to the surrounding, particles in their paths are displaced by these waves giving rise to particle velocities. But a structural vibration may vary according to the soil type, soil structure interaction and characteristics of the structure. Therefore need of a threshold, applicable to our conditions on which to base the blasting operations was identified. This paper presents a study on investigating the damage on wall panels due to blast vibration. A wall panel, size of 1200 mm×1000 mm with free ends and another with vertical lateral supports were constructed closer to a rock blasting quarry and the effect of vibration on the structure was monitored. A significant crack was observed at the foundation level of the cantilever type wall panel at a vibration level around 30mms-1 of ppv but no damage on the wall panel with fixed ends. Numerical modeling was carried out with the Finite Element Modeling using SAP 2000 software. Results of the numerical study verify that the tensile stresses of the bottom level of the wall panel exceed the splitting tensile strength only in the wall panel with free ends.