CHAPTER 18

Heave

18.1 INTROI 11,1CTION

To this point the book has largely dealt with the process of how the rock is !woken by ex.
plosise energy. When considering the next stage in a mining operation. loading and
hauling of the broken material, it is important to COOSider the final packaging of the bro.
ken rock. This packaging refers to the form and other cbseactcristics of the pile, Ideally
one would like to create a pik which is perfectly suited to the digging capabilities of the
loader being used. A wheel loader his Ionised digging height, reach and breakout force
but teas high mobility. It use is best s.uitcd to low. to muck piles. A rope shovel has
good digging height, reach and breakout fon= but limited mobility. Its Lise favors high,
compact muck piles. Heave refers to the process in which the rock is displaced from its
insitu position to its final resting position during Wasting. With little displacement one
would expect the rock to undergo little expansion. Minion, rearrangement and ITIOV011ent-
It would he considered 'tight'. on IN: (Aber hand. rock which undergoes significant
movement would have great chance to TOUtte, translate and be mucked in a km.ise loam
with a high voids ratio allowing the easy passage and hence filling of the bucket. The ex-
plosise has a fixed amount of energy which gets distributed into shock energy and gas en-
ergy. The gas energy, in turn. gets distributed into breaking energy (rock inplace) and
kioseningidisplacing energy thca,c). A certain amount of the pit* energy escapes to do
work on the surrounding atmosphcrc. In this Chapter the emphasis is on describing in
some detail the displacing action which occurs as a result of a bench Nast It begins with a
presentation of some results obtained through the use of high-speed photography. Empiri-
cal, analytical and numerical models used tor describing the heave phenomenon arc then
introduced together with corresponding results.

18.2 BASIC HI AVE ACTION AS CAPTURED PHOTOGRAPHICALLY

Over the )(ems, photographic records have served as a say valuable source of informa-
lion for those studying blasting performance, Using high-speed cameras taking several
thousand frames per second the blast with a duration of only a few seconds ail be later
played back one frame at a time and different evert mewing at various scales such as
burden motion, face velocities, sicininmg ejection. flyrock velocities and trajectories, etc
can be studied. On this basis, changes to the design to enhance or minimile the effects oh-
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