Evaluation and assessment of blast-induced ground vibrations in an underground gold mine : a case study

Ground vibrations induced during rock fragmentation by blasting remain a potential source of hazard for the stability of nearby structures. In this paper, to forecast the effect of blast-induced ground vibrations, dimensional analysis (DA) is proposed to predict peak particle velocity (PPV). In conventional predictor equations, the major and critical parameter for the estimation of PPV is square root scaled distance. The new formula based on DA was obtained considering various blast design parameters in order to improve the capability of PPV prediction. After obtaining the new DA equation for the prediction of PPV, 360 data sets were used to determine the unknown coefficients of the new equation as well as site constants of different conventional predictor equations. Then, ten additional randomly selected data sets were used to compare the capability of the new model with conventional predictor equations. The results were compared based on coefficient of determination (R2) and mean absolute error (MAE) between measured and predicted values of PPV. The proposed formula with the greatest R2 and the lowest MAE was the better option for predicting the PPV of induced vibrations for the measured field data. © 2021, International Association for Mathematical Geosciences