Prediction and evaluation of blast-induced ground vibrations for structural damage and human response

Abstract

This research focuses on blast-induced structural damage and human response to vibrations. Frequency is one of the important parameters that affect damage probability and human perception. The first and primary target of the study is to predict ground vibration and frequency simultaneously. A feed-forward back propagation neural network was created for modeling. Three operational parameters and vibration measurement distance were used as input parameters. The developed model was compared to the regression equations. Different error measures were considered to perform a vigorous model validation. Ten different blasting level charts were used to estimate structural damage probability. The regulations from North America, Europe, and Southern Hemisphere were examined and compared. Variation in the vibration regulations was also discussed. Some suggestions were put forward for the development of an international regulation. Two practical charts were created to predict human response to vibrations. A specific graph, which was proposed for pile driving induced vibrations, was considered for evaluation of blast vibrations. The developed soft computing framework can forecast probability of structural damage and human perception of vibrations effectively.