Charge design scheme optimization for ring blasting based on the developed Scaled Heelan model

In order to reduce the undesired phenomenon including brow damage, over crushing and bulking yield in the ring blasting which are owning to the unreasonable distribution of blasting energy, a new optimization method is proposed to improve the charge scheme based on the Scaled Heelan (SH) model. First, the traversal algorithm for an arrangement of regular holes (holes charged to the collar) is proposed based on the analysis of the current interval charge design method in ring blasting. Second, a new developed mathematical model based on the SH model is introduced to predict the fragment size of the column charge. Then, the optimization method according to two key parameters of the blasted fragment prediction, D50 and D90−D10, is discussed. Finally, a case study is introduced to illustrate the usage and optimization procedure of the program. Sixty trial blasts were conducted in the Tonglvshan copper mine to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the optimization algorithm. The frequency of occurrence of brow damage was reduced from 36.7% to 16.7% using the proposed method in our sixty field tests, and the loading efficiency was also improved by 11.3% due to the more uniform distribution of muck pile fragment size.