| Blasting is a dynamic and highly non-linear process making accurate prediction of blasting results challenging. The uncertainty in predicting fragmentation is due, in part, to the inability to fully describe the rock fabric and how interactions occur between the explosive gasses and the rock on both a micro and macro scale. As such, the engineer generally relies on empirical fitting schemes to estimate results in a system where there is no fixed solution.; This thesis demonstrates a technique that can be used to predict fragmentation for underground ring drilling blasts based upon a combination of the Kuz-Ram fragmentation model and the Cell Powder Factor. This Modified Cell Powder Factor changes the way in which the cells are placed on a blasting layout in order to achieve a more accurate result. In combining these methods, this thesis will provide a practical method for estimating fragmentation for ring drilled layouts that cannot be easily analysed with existing empirical methods. An approach to optimize the cell size and the number of cells used in an analysis is outlined.; The results of the method are compared to photo-analysis results of a sub-level caving operation, at which the data was originally collected. This, along with other references, provides confidence in the ability of this method to represent the bulk behaviour of the blast. |
