Masters Theses

Abstract

"Little research has been published on stemming blast holes, particularly what happens during the process. Previous work has concentrated on the performance of the inert material to find the best way to seal the hole and retain the explosive energy, at the exclusion of determining what happens during the loading and stemming process. Such studies were carried out by Konya and Worsey.

The major problem with stemming studies is that rock is an opaque material, and the actual mechanisms involved during the stemming process cannot be viewed. For this reason, tests were performed using clear tubes to simulate a blast hole with ANFO used as the explosive. The tests incorporated three or more different hole angles, three different tube sizes, three or more flow rates for both ANFO and stemming, and four types of stemming. A video camera was used to record each test. It was found that complex interfaces developed between the ANFO and stemming depending upon the hole angle and the flow rate of the stemming. Fast stemming flow rates caused burrowing into the ANFO.

Recommendations for angled blastholes are: the ANFO should be loaded as quickly as possible, then an initial smaller volume of stemming should be loaded slowly, after which it may be stemmed as desired"--Abstract, page iii.

Advisor(s)

Worsey, Paul Nicholas

Committee Member(s)

Wilson, John W.
Barr, David J.

Department(s)

Mining Engineering

Degree Name

M.S. in Mining Engineering

Publisher

University of Missouri--Rolla

Publication Date

Fall 1997

Pagination

x, 81 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 79-80).

Rights

© 1997 Michael David Wilkins, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 7380

Print OCLC #

38868942

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