Abstract
Reducing the amount of fine particles (fines) in dynamic brittle fragmentation is important within the mining industry, to save energy and reduce environmental hazard. Blasting-round design to achieve this has been held back by a lack of understanding of the fundamental physics, and by the technical complexity of blasting-process measurements. The authors use numerical simulations and experimental data to study the physical origin of fines generated in civil-engineering blasts. Surprisingly, the fragments can be classified according to universal mechanisms. This insight has the potential to generate innovative engineering solutions that may save resources and protect the environment.
Highlights
The extraction of metals from ore minerals is one of the most important industrial processes
Tensile cracks produce fines, but the majority of the mass is confined in larger fragments
The initial phase of mineral extraction is the blasting of rock to break it, and to crush large fragments in mills to produce pieces of desired sizes
Summary
The extraction of metals from ore minerals is one of the most important industrial processes. Additions to the CZM by Onederra et al [8] have assumed that the fine particles originate from a circular compressive failure zone around the borehole, as well as from crushed and/or sheared material bounded by major blast-induced radial cracks, which are assumed to be evenly distributed around a blasthole, planar, and to continue along the length of the explosive charge. This constitutes the star-shaped crushed-zone model [9]. II in the Supplemental Material [9])
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