Flyrock in surface mining - Limitations of current predictive models and a better alterative through modelling the aerodynamics of flyrock trajectory

Abstract

Historical approaches to the problem of flyrock based on correlation studies and regression analysis, including artificial neural networks and similar techniques, are inherently incapable of addressing two core issues - root causes of flyrock and projection velocity. A further shortcoming of correlation techniques is that they give no information on the influence of rock size and shape on the flight distance. The scaled depth of burial model for crater blasting in the collar zone and bench face does not specifically address the question of flyrock velocity. A third approach, based on flight trajectory calculations, often neglects the very significant effects of air resistance on the trajectory. Some trajectory models incorporate air resistance but use an implausible fragment velocity model that cannot propel sizeable rocks to distances much beyond 150 m. Nonetheless, trajectory calculation incorporating the effects of air drag affords the most promising approach to the prediction of flyrock range. A unique and insightful feature of the proposed realistic flight modelling is that it collapses all suspected causes of flyrock, many of which are not well understood, to just a single parameter - the launch velocity. This indicates that the root causes of flyrock lie in the mechanisms of momentum transfer to broken rock and suggests new avenues of study.