A critical analysis of recent research into the prediction of flyrock and related issues resulting from surface blasting activities

Abstract

SYNOPSIS Since 2010, a number of researchers have investigated the development of new models to generate accurate predictions relating to the risks from flyrock. The purpose of this paper is to summarize and analyse these recent studies in order to determine the validity of the findings as a global solution. Recent publications have proposed a wide range of potential approaches and techniques to predict or investigate flyrock. Several authors have proposed viable solutions based on assumed causative parameters and their impact as inputs. However, the results were concluded to be site-specific and could not be applied to other environments. Since the actual impact of blast design parameters on the risk of flyrock remains debatable, based on the varying assumptions made in recent research, it is important to use an objective methodology for evaluating the impact of design parameters as well as environmental considerations. The testing methodologies used to measure the actual flyrock distance are not scientific and are highly dependent on the scrutiny of the researcher. In order to present results that are objective and uncriticizable, an accurate, quantitative and objective method of measuring the travel distance of flyrock is required. Keywords: flyrock, flyrock prediction, flyrock measurement, blast safety, blast analysis, blast damage.

Environmental, Legal and Social Implications of Aggregate Extraction (Mining) Operations

“…All calculations relating to the throw or travel distance of flyrock are theoretical, and, as noted by van der Walt and Spiteri (2020) 476 , Raina, Murthy and Soni (2015) 477 and Ghasemi, Sari and Ataei (2012) 478 , predictions of flyrock distance are not accurate and continue to confound explosives engineers and blasters for a variety of reasons:  Several authors have proposed viable solutions based on assumed causative parameters and their impact as actual flyrock distance are not scientific and are highly dependent on the scrutiny of the researcher. In order to present results that are objective and uncriticizable, an accurate, quantitative and objective method of measuring the travel distance of flyrock is required 479 .…”

A conceptual technique to mathematically quantify the trajectory of flyrock

“…The approaches or techniques implemented in the recent studies are summarized in Figure 2 and were comprehensively analysed by van der Walt and Spiteri (2020).…”

“…These various studies proposed viable models for predicting and analyszing flyrock based on presumed causative parameters as inputs and their estimated impact on flyrock as weights assigned to each input. However, all of these papers concluded that the respective models were site-specific and could not be applied to other environments (van der Walt and Spiteri, 2020).…”

“…An initial literature review concluded that existing predictive models may not be sufficient to constitute a global technique that can be considered during the blast design process (van der Walt and Spiteri, 2020). The multiple studies reviewed and analysed concluded that 'there are major research gaps into the phenomena of flyrock and that this concept is not well understood' (Raina, Murthy, and Soni, 2015).…”

“…To successfully investigate the realistic effect of blast parameters on flyrock and develop such a globally applicable prediction model, a significantly large data-set is required which must be interpreted mathematically. However, during a literature review of recent work in the field of flyrock and flyrock prediction, no specific method of quantitatively measuring flyrock could be identified (van der Walt and Spiteri, 2020). For this reason, this study was aimed at investigating and developing a concept to mathematically quantify the trajectory (i.e.…”