Application Software Developed for the Determination of Expansion Volume in Clay Soil Generated by the Detonation of an Explosive Charge

Abstract

Blasting in clay soil in the field of anchoring and foundation of objects and structures has its benefits in construction and geotechnical practice. The foundations of the method lay in the fact that a shock wave is generated when the explosive charge is detonated. The shock wave, with high pressure at the wavefront, causes the natural structure of the clay soil to be destroyed, and a spherical expansion in the clay mass is formed. The presented research is focused on determining the shape and volume of the resulting expansion in test blasts performed with several types of explosives. An application named Borehole was developed to determine the resulting spherical expansion formed after the detonation of an explosive charge with the integration of the GNSS method of measurement, depth camera, and laser. The application Borehole calculates expansion volume based on the coordinates obtained with the GNSS and the laser-obtained distance of the formed expansion and provides a graphical interpretation in 2D and 3D views. Additionally, when developing the application Borehole, compatibility with CAD tools was considered, primarily for better verification and a more detailed graphical interpretation of 3D views. The developed method allows for simple determination of the volume and dimension of the spherical expansion in clay soil with acceptable accuracy for the design and building of geotechnical structures constructed above and underground.