Prediction and prevention of airblast levels

Drilling and blasting are the basic operations for excavation of the rock and ore in mining. For rapidly growing cities, like Istanbul, the required raw materials for the construction industry are supplied from quarries in the vicinity or within the city. With the growth of population density, many suburban areas approach quarries and this requires minimization of the adverse effect of the blasting operations. Airblast, the focus of this paper, is defined as blast induced atmospheric pressure waves consisting of high-frequency sound that is audible and low-frequency sound that is sub-audible. High overpressures levels may cause breaks of windowpanes, and plaster cracks. Additionally many mines come across psychological responses of residential areas. In this paper, the monitoring of airblast is explained and its evaluation procedures are defined. The allowable limits of the airblast and scaled distance approach that used for prediction of airblast levels are presented. For a more concrete case, production shots from a limestone quarry in near Istanbul are examined. The airblast records are evaluated using specific environmental limits. The suggestions are put forward to control airblast.