[1] A series of uniaxial compression tests were performed on 96-mm-diameter quartzite samples, 242 mm in length, to understand the scaling of rock fracture processes. Nine acoustic emission (AE) sensors glued to each sample monitored the AEs resulting from microcracking within the samples. In contrast to previous AE studies, the sensors were calibrated as velocity transducers so that the output could be compared to mining-induced seismicity and natural earthquakes. A new hybrid, relative moment tensor method was applied to obtain source mechanism solutions for eight clusters of events. Once the AE rate accelerated prior to failure, the event positions are associated with the observed failure planes. The moment tensors were found to have double-couple components, indicating that shearing was occurring. The stress drop appears to be constant over the range of moments suggesting the self-similar scaling of the fracture response from the laboratory sample to mine seismicity and natural earthquakes over a wide range of length scales. Similar conclusions can be drawn by considering the apparent stress and source radius. The scaling of the peak velocity and peak acceleration parameters is apparently consistent with mining-induced seismicity but is considerably affected by high-frequency attenuation and the limited bandwidth. This is confirmed by the frequency-magnitude plot, which has a slope of unity. The fracture processes in the laboratory are similar to those occurring underground near stope faces and pillars in deep-level South African gold mines, where there is a high vertical compression and low confinement.

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This paper presents one of the latest developments in the blasting engineering modelling fieldthe Hybrid Stress Blasting Model (HSBM). HSBM includes a rock breakage engine to model detonation, wave propagation, rock fragmentation, and muck pile formation. Results from two controlled blasting experiments were used to evaluate the code's ability to predict the extent of damage. Results indicate that the code is capable of adequately predicting both the extent and shape of the damage zone associated with the influence of point-of-initiation and free-face boundary conditions. Radial fractures extending towards a free face are apparent in the modelling output and matched those mapped after the experiment. In the stage 2 validation experiment, the maximum extent of visible damage was of the order of 1.45 m for the fully coupled 38-mm emulsion charge. Peak radial velocities were predicted within a relative difference of only 1.59% at the nearest history point at 0.3 m from the explosive charge. Discrepancies were larger further away from the charge, with relative differences of −22.4% and −42.9% at distances of 0.46 m and 0.61 m, respectively, meaning that the model overestimated particle velocities at these distances. This attenuation deficiency in the modelling produced an overestimation of the damage zone at the corner of the block due to excessive stress reflections. The extent of visible damage in the immediate vicinity of the blasthole adequately matched the measurements.

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