Journal of University of Science and Technology Beijing

Volume 15, Number 3, June 2008, Page 209

Mineral

Numerical simulation of parallel hole cut blasting with uncharged holes

Shijie Qu, Xiangbin Zheng, Lihua Fan, and Ying Wang
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
(Received 2007-05-30)

Abstract: The cavity formation and propagation process of stress wave from parallel hole cut blasting was simulated with ANSYS/LS-DYNA 3D nonlinear dynamic finite element software. The distribution of element plastic strain, node velocity, node
time-acceleration history and the blasting cartridge volume ratio during the process were analyzed. It was found that the detonation of
charged holes would cause the interaction of stress wave with the wall of uncharged holes. Initial rock cracking and displacement to
neighboring uncharged holes become the main mechanism of cavity formation in early stage.
2008 University of Science and Technology Beijing. All rights reserved.
Key words: parallel hole; cut blasting; cavity formation; numerical simulation

1. Introduction
Cut with parallel holes is widely used in tunneling
and shaft sinking operations in different types of rock
masses because of the simplicity in drilling and planning and the possibility of obtaining high efficiency of
blast holes. However, experiences show that the fragmentation and efficiency of any tunneling practice are
dominated by the performance of those cut holes to a
certain extent because these holes are supposed to produce new free surfaces and space for detonation of
blast holes initiated thereafter [1].
Tunneling with parallel cut holes means that the
rock between uncharged holes and charged cut holes
is to be fragmented by stress wave and expansion of
the gaseous products from detonation of charged cut
holes and to be put forward to the uncharged holes and
the original surface, before the cut is pulled out as a
result. This cut will perform as free faces and space to
which the helpers will blast. This shows that the rock
fragmentation from the helpers will be controlled by
the performance of cut holes, and affects the pulling of
contour holes consequently.
In an effort to improve blast design and control
fragmentation of tunneling operations, many researches on tunneling with parallel cut holes have
been conducted in recent years. The fragmentation
mechanism, parameter selection, and fragmentation
Corresponding author: Shijie Qu, E-mail: qushijie1229@yahoo.cm.cn
2008 University of Science and Technology Beijing. All rights reserved.

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simulation of parallel hole cut blasting were studied

and discussed by different researchers [2-7]. Through
mechanical model study and numerical analyses,
Zhang et al. found that area of empty holes needed to
be determined with the depth of charged holes in parallel hole cut blasting [4].
Because of the high temperature and high pressure
of the instant process of explosive detonation, difficulties still exist for technical experimental methods to
assure blast results with effectiveness and reliability.
Therefore, an effort to estimate the reasonability of a
cut blast design and to optimize the selection of blasting parameters, such as drill pattern and charge quantity, was made. To achieve the above, computer simulation with ANSYS/LS-DYNA 3D nonlinear dynamic
finite element software [8] and the process of parallel
hole cut blasting with uncharged holes, based on
blasting dynamics, were carried out. The results of the
research may serve as a reference for stress analyses
and parameter selection of parallel hole cut blasting
with uncharged holes.

2. Constitutive model and state equation of

cut blasting
The media involved in cut blasting include rock,
explosives, gaseous products from explosives detonation, stemming material, the air in uncharged holes,
Also available online at www.sciencedirect.com

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J. Univ. Sci. Technol. Beijing, Vol.15, No.3, Jun 2008

and the air outside of the face. Thus, constitutive

models for each of the media need be set up and the
model matching method of the multiphase system
needs be selected.
ANSYS/LS-DYNA, a finite element software, can
be used to analyze nonlinear dynamic problems. Two
methods, i.e. the Lagrange method and arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) method are available for liquid-solid matching analyses with ANSYS/LS-DYNA.
Element mutation can hardly be avoided as it is applied in numerical calculations of large deformation
problems, especially, when elements are unevenly distributed. Therefore, the ALE method is selected,
which can fairly deal with possible element mutation
during the process of cut blasting of the multiphase
media system, and multiphase media matching problems can be solved more effectively.
2.1. The HOLMQUIST-JOHNSON-COOK constitutive model of rock
The use of the HOLMQUIST-JOHNSON-COOK
constitutive model makes it possible to simulate high
stress and large strain and simulate the pressure produced from gas expansion of a dynamic impact process in concrete and rock. Volumetric strain, stress state
of fractured area, and damage within the media can all
be described with the pressure equation of the
model [9].
Because damage in ordinary dynamic circumstances, such as the cut blasting, is caused generally
by
effective
plastic
strain,
the
HOLMQUIST-JOHNSON-COOK constitutive model is applied and its state equation can be written as follows:
(1) State equation for loading and unloading in linear elastic stage.
p = Ke

(1)

where is the standard volumetric strain as

= / 0 -1 , and 0 are the density and original density, respectively; K e = p c / c , pc and c are the
uni-axial compressive strength and volumetric strain
at crushing, respectively.
(2) State equation for loading in plastic transferring
stage.
p = pc +

( p1 p c )( c )
p1 c

(2)

where p1 is the stress at solidification under impact, c

is the volume strain at solidification as
c = g / 0 1 , where g is the grain density as there
are no fissures in the media, and p1 is the volume
strain at final crushing as p=p1 .

(3) State equation for unloading in plastic stage.

p p max = [ (1 F ) K e + FK 1 ] ( max )

(3)

where F is the factor of interpolation as

F = ( max c ) /( p1 c ) , K1 is the volumetric plastic modulus, max and pmax are the maximum volumetric strain and the maximum pressure before unloading,
respectively, and p1 is the volumetric strain as
p=p1 .
(4) State equation for loading in ideal solid stage.
p = L1 + K 2 2 + K 3 3

(4)

where is the revised volumetric strain as

= ( 1 ) /(1 + 1 ) ; K1, K2, and K3 are constants and
equal to 127, 216, and 257 GPa, respectively, where
1 is the volumetric strain at solidification.
(5) State equation for unloading in ideal solid stage.
p p max = K 1 ( max )

(5)

where max = ( max 1 ) /(1 + 1 ) .

Mechanical properties of the rock and parameters
of the state equations are listed in Tables 1 and 2, respectively.
Table 1.
Density /
(gcm3)
3.217

Mechanical properties of the rock

Internal enElastic modulus Elastic

Poisons
ergy ratio /
of shearing / modulus /
ratio
(kJg1)
GPa
GPa
18.6
46
0.15
1.267

Table 2.

Parameters of the state equations

pc

Pc / GPa

Pi / GPa

pi

T / GPa

Ke / GPa

0.006

0.217

0.65

0.2

0.032

12

In Table 2, pc is the compressive stress in rock, pi is

the initial ground stress, pc is the volumetric strain
corresponding to pc, pi is the volumetric strain corresponding to pi, and T is the maximum of statically indeterminate tensile stress.
2.2. Model of explosives detonation
The model *MAT_HIGH_EXPLOSIVE_BURN
and the state equation Jones-Wilkins-Lee (JWL) for
explosives are used to describe the performance and
characteristics of explosives detonation [8]. The state
equation JWL can give an accurate description of the
characteristics of the explosion products in terms of
pressure, volume, and energy. The state equation is
applied together with the model, thus the pressure of
the explosion products is defined as a function of relative volume and internal energy:

p = A 1
R1V

R1V

+ B 1
e

R 2V

R2V E 0
+
e
V

(6)

S.J. Qu et al., Numerical simulation of parallel hole cut blasting with uncharged holes

where A, B, R1, R2, and are coefficients, V is the

relative volume, and E0 is the density of initial internal
energy.
Because the shock wave from detonation is always
associated with rapid variation of physical variants,
jump and disconnection in pressure and density, as
well as particle acceleration, will be caused [10]. To
avoid the effect of this phenomenon, an artificial
volume viscosity coefficient can be asserted to the
terms of pressure and make the rapid jump and disconnection into a continuous variation in fairly narrow
periods. The explosive used in the tunnel blasting is
ammonium nitrite #2 with an initial density of =
1200 kg/m3 and detonation velocity of 3200 m/s,
whereas the pressure in C-J plane is 5.6 GPa. Parameters of the state equation of a detonation of the explosive are shown in Table 3.

211

of 274 m, was designed of a triple-center arc form

with a figure of 3.74-m width and 3.07-m height.
About 50 blast holes of 2.0 m in depth and 46 kg explosive products per round were used. The pulling
depth was usually up to 1.2-1.5 m only. The profile of
the tunnel was often out of design. The face produced
was uneven as maximum over breakage was up to 50
cm. Thus, blast design needs to be optimized and
technical parameters need to be changed.
3.2. Drill pattern and charge structure for the single helix parallel hole cut blasting
This type of cut blasting is characterized in that all
cut holes are parallel to each other and perpendicular
to the face. One or a number of the cut holes are not
charged and are used to provide free faces for the
charged holes. The drill pattern and hole charge structure are shown in Fig. 1.

Table 3. Parameters of the state equation of detonation of

the explosive ammonium nitrite #2
A / GPa
252.3

B / GPa
3.93

R1
4.82

R2
0.97

0.35

E0 / GPa
0.752

2.3. Air model

The state equation *MAT_NULL is applied in this
model to avoid partial stress calculations, as the lower
limit of the stress is determined with resultant pressure.
The elements at strength of compression and tension
under critical pressure conditions can be justified with
failure criterion of the state equation MAT_NULL
during the process of air compression and expansion
[8]. The density of air is = 1.2 kg/m3 [10].
2.4. Model of the stemming material
The stemming material used in tunnel blasting is
earth, thus, state equation *MAT_SOIL_AND_FOAM
is applied to establishment of the model of the stemming material and solid-gaseous phase matching can
be effectively simulated. In accordance with measured
data, the density, elastic modulus, and Poisons ratio
of the stemming material, the earth, are 1.85 g/cm3,
1.6 104 GPa, and 0.2, respectively.

3. Numerical simulation of cavity formation

3.1. Conditions
Hole drilling for tunnel blasting was carried out at
the level of 274 m of an iron mine with rock drills
YT228. The length of the drill is 2.2 m or 1.8 m and
the tip of the drill is 38 mm in diameter. The diameter
of the blast holes is 40 mm. Cartridges of ammonium explosive #2 were used, with the cartridge diameter and length of 32 mm and 200 mm, respectively.
Electric initiation was applied. The tunnel, at the level

Fig. 1. Drill pattern (a) and hole charge structure (b) of

the single helix cut model (unit: cm).

3.3. Finite element model

Double of the size of the tunnels profile is used to
define the boundary into the surrounding rock mass,
taking the effect of rock mass on the cut blasting
process. Meanwhile, the gravity effect of rock mass
from the top of the tunnel is neglected.
The cubic element is used to spatially separate explosive charges, rock, stemming material, and the air
decking at the bottom of blast holes. Because the cut
holes are relatively small to the tunnel, the elements
close to explosive charges are defined as fine, and
others as coarse (Fig. 2 and Fig. 3). Since the symme-

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J. Univ. Sci. Technol. Beijing, Vol.15, No.3, Jun 2008

try of the model, half of the model is used for the

study (Fig. 4). The length, width, and height of the
model are 3.87 m, 4.0 m, and 6.0 m, respectively. The
model is separated into 66954 elements in total, in
which 1080 are for explosive charges, 1682 are for
hole bottom air decks, 360 are for hole stemming, and
63832 are for the rock. The time for simulation of 1
ms is selected, that is approximately equal to the duration for cavity formation and expansion.

Fig. 2. Detailed drawing of the model (unit: cm).

4. Results and analyses

Visualization of the interaction of rock and explosive charges is realized with use of the section function of ANSYS/LS-DYNA. The section along the axis
of the tunnel for visualization is designed at the height
of 100 cm of the model shown in Fig. 2.
4.1. Effective plastic strain
Fig. 4 gives the effective plastic strain distribution
at Z = 100 cm when t = 989 s. It shows that the
plastic strain area, caused by detonation, increases
with the distance from the charge to the uncharged
hole. The nearest point of the effective strain occurs at
the top of the charged hole No. 7 and the 0.5 m right
side of the charged hole No. 6, and the furthest point
of the effective strain occurs at 0.57 m below the
charge No. 5. The strain decreases with the distance to
the uncharged hole. Because of the effect of the reflected tensile stress from neighboring uncharged
holes, the effective plastic strain around the uncharged
hole No. 1 appears to be much higher than that further
away from it.
Fig. 4 also shows that plastic strain occurred to
some extent around the relievers and was favorable to
fragmentation. However, the uneven distribution of
strain may cause uneven fragmentation and produce
an effect to cavity formation in the process.
4.2. History of velocity and acceleration
Fig. 5 shows that the maximum velocity occurs at
the node around the charge, and the minimum velocity
occurs in the middle of the two neighboring charged
holes because of the stress overlapping effect. Hereby,
the recorded acceleration in direction Y is used to
analyze the stress state on the node indirectly.

Fig. 3. Element meshing of the model.

Fig. 4. Distribution of plastic strain (t = 988.5 s).

Fig. 5. Distribution of node velocity (t = 988.5 s).

S.J. Qu et al., Numerical simulation of parallel hole cut blasting with uncharged holes

The node No. 57291 is located adjacent to the hole

No. 5, and the node No. 57331 is located adjacent to
hole No. 1as node No.57478 is at the middle of the
two holes.
Fig. 6 shows that the dynamic load to the node No.
57291 is quite strong at an early stage and thereafter
attenuation of the load occurs in a manner similar to
dynamic stress from explosive detonation. The load to
the node No.57478 is higher than that to the node No.
57331 and the increase in stress occurs after attenuation before negative acceleration occurs, which implies that tensile stress is caused possibly by reflection
of the compressive stress wave from uncharged hole
wall.

Fig. 6. Acceleration-time history of the key nodes.

4.3. Analyses on the cavity formation process

The function modes history Var#5 of the post processing software LS-PREPOST, an advanced pre/post
processor for ANSYS/LS-DYNA, is used for dynamic
visualizing of the explosive charge, uncharged holes,
other materials and the whole process of cavity formation (i.e. the space expansion process of these materials) by detonation of the explosive charge.
The isoline of stress is produced with LCON, line
contours, of ANSYS/LS-DYNA and the entire model
with phantom function, thus, variation of the relations
between explosive charge and the air can be observed.
From Fig. 7 it can also be seen that the boundaries of
the explosive charges No. 5 and No. 7 begin to expand
towards the uncharged hole before t = 454.95 s, as
the charges No. 4 and No. 6 expand circularly from
their own center. At this moment, no effect has occurred to the uncharged hole because the stress wave
is still a distance far away.
The wave fronts from the holes No. 4 and No. 6
reach the perimeters of the uncharged holes, the holes
No. 2 and No.6 as t = 747.44 s. Along with expansion of the hole perimeters and propagation of the
stress waves from the holes No. 5 and No.7, the uncharged hole located in the middle of the model be-

213

gins to be disturbed and the stress is initiated before

fragmentation and displacement of the rock occurs
around the uncharged hole.

Fig. 7. Process of cavity formation from parallel hole cut

blasting.

As t = 988.54 s, overlapping of the stress waves

from adjacent charged holes, with the hole No. 7 being an exception because it is relatively farther away,
the stress wave from it is still on the way to the nearest
uncharged hole No. 1, and the interaction of the stress
waves with the uncharged holes begins to occur.
Therefore, it is fair that the disturbance to the uncharged hole No. 1 is less than that to the holes No. 2
and No. 3. In the later stage of the process, overlapping of the stress waves from all the charged holes and
cracking from charged hole perimeters to neighboring
uncharged hole wall in the area around the uncharged
hole No. 1 become obvious, before propagation of the
stress waves completes. However, it can be found
from Fig. 7 that the process is featured with interaction of the stress waves with the neighboring uncharged holes and with the priority of cracking from
the charged holes to the uncharged holes, which becomes the main mechanism of cavity formation by
parallel hole cut blasting.

5. Conclusions
(1) The result of simulation shows that in the process of parallel hole cut blasting with uncharged holes,
the detonation of charged holes will cause the interaction of stress wave with the uncharged hole wall and
become the main reason for initial rock cracking and
displacement to the uncharged hole.
(2) Unloaded holes, if properly designed, will provide good free face and space for detonation of
neighboring charged holes and provide a significant
help in the process of cavity formation.
(3) Distance from a charged cut hole to its nearest
uncharged hole is an important factor controlling actual outcome of a parallel hole cut blasting practice.
Increasing this distance will possibly cause poor

214

cracking within the area and a small cavity can be

formed as a result, therefore which may produce a
poor pulling of the whole tunnel blasting practice.
(4) Stress overlapping first occurs in the middle of
two neighboring charged holes, as the charged cut
holes are simultaneously initiated. Therefore, it is
proposed that the uncharged holes should be located in
the middle of two neighboring charged holes.

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