The law of blast stress wave propagation and fracture development in soft and hard composite rock

Abstract

Abstract The process of blasting stress wave propagation and crack propagation is directly affected by the physical properties of the rock mass and internal joints in the rock. In soft and hard rock layers, the blasting process is more complicated since the blasting stress wave needs to penetrate two kinds of rocks with different physical properties and the interface between soft rock and hard rock. In this study, the modal transformation of stress waves at the interface of layered composite rock was analyzed, and the process was reproduced by finite element analysis. Furthermore, the development law of cracks was explored. The research results demonstrated that in the single blasting-hole model, a triangular crack area caused by reflected stress waves appeared at the rock interface of rock medium I near the blast hole. In rock medium II, the tensile crack generated by the interface wave appeared on the side away from the blast hole. Besides, the development of the tensile crack was associated with the incident mode of the blast stress wave and the incident angle. In the deep hole blasting model, the incidence of the detonation wave front from hard rock to soft rock promoted the fragmentation of the hard rock.