Numerical Simulation of Quarry Blast Sources
Abstract
This final report summarizes the principal results of numerical investigations of the quarry blast as a seismic source. The goal was to derive simple but physically meaningful models that could be used to predict regional and teleseismic waveforms for large industrial blasts. The source models may then be used to develop seismic discrimination strategies for the identification of industrial blasts and other natural and man made seismic sources. Physical models are presented for the excitation of seismic waves from quarry blasts. The effects of spall, ripple firing, and the quarry bench on the excitation of seismic waves are each investigated. Theoretical derivations are presented for physical models which consist of forces applied to the free surface to model spall and modifications to the explosion moment tensor to model the effects of the non-planar free surface of the quarry bench. Numerical investigations using both 2D and 3D finite difference calculations are used to verify that the simplifying assumptions are valid for the bandwidths of interest. It is concluded that the spall source should be an important part of the typical quarry blast and Nuclear discrimination, Quarry blast, Spall, Synthetic seismograms, Nuclear testing, Finite differences.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1994
- Accession Number
- ADA275799
Entities
People
- J. L. Stevens
- Keith L. Mclaughlin
- T. G. Barker