Support vector machines approach to mean particle size of rock fragmentation due to bench blasting prediction

Aiming at the problems of the traditional method of assessing distribution of particle size in bench blasting, a support vector machines (SVMs) regression methodology was used to predict the mean particle size (X50) resulting from rock blast fragmentation in various mines based on the statistical learning theory. The data base consisted of blast design parameters, explosive parameters, modulus of elasticity and in-situ block size. The seven input independent variables used for the SVMs model for the prediction of X50 of rock blast fragmentation were the ratio of bench height to drilled burden (H/B), ratio of spacing to burden (S/B), ratio of burden to hole diameter (B/D), ratio of stemming to burden (T/B), powder factor (Pf), modulus of elasticity (E) and in-situ block size (XB). After using the 90 sets of the measured data in various mines and rock formations in the world for training and testing, the model was applied to 12 another blast data for validation of the trained support vector regression (SVR) model. The prediction results of SVR were compared with those of artificial neural network (ANN), multivariate regression analysis (MVRA) models, conventional Kuznetsov method and the measured X50 values. The proposed method shows promising results and the prediction accuracy of SVMs model is acceptable.