No abstract

Several mines and excavation work with blasting are within city borders or close to settled areas due to expanding the population. People living in these areas can be made uncomfortable by the blast vibrations, even if particle velocities are within the permissible levels for structures according to regulations. Hence, there is a need for research on the perception of blast-induced vibration levels on human. As is known, there are biological differences between men and women. Also, they differ in many psychological and behavioral aspects. Thus, the response of women and men to vibration will be different. Considering this situation, we investigated how gender affects the level of being uncomfortable with blast-induced ground vibration. In this study, volunteer participants taken to the limestone quarry were surveyed about vibrations exposure, while blast vibrations were measured as a particle velocity. Peak particle velocities measured between 0.80 mm/s and 17.40 mm/s. Scaled distances were calculated and PPV-scaled distances graphs were plotted. Vibration discomfort levels were determined and added on these graphs according to gender. According to the results, it is clear that the perception limit is the same for women and men but the annoyance levels change according to gender especially for high PPV values.

There are many factors that determine the size distribution of blast heap fragments. The most important factors are the type and amount of explosive material used and the blast design. However, the geological nature of the work area is also an important parameter. In particular, parameters such as the location and frequency of discontinuities affect the size distribution of heap fragments. The general conclusion reached through laboratory and field studies on discontinuities is that the orientation of the discontinuity and the fillings between the discontinuities determine the blast results. This study presents a numerical model that can be used to determine the relationship between the interval and orientation of discontinuities and blast efficiency. Twelve blast experiments were performed at two quarries to develop a numerical model. The data from the field studies were used as input in the numerical model, and the relationship between the discontinuities and fragment size distribution is investigated in this paper.