Mining Goes Digital – Mueller et al. (Eds)
© 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-367-33604-2
595
Development of blast-induced ground vibration wireless
monitoring system
Ragam Prashanth & D.S. Nimaje
National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, India
ABSTRACT: In recent decades, the ground vibration induced by blasting is an inevitable
outcome and severely damages surrounding structures. Hence, it is essential to monitor
the ground vibration to evaluate and control the adverse consequences of blasting. Several
conventional instruments were widely adopted to measure vibration in terms of Peak Particle
Velocity (PPV). The major limitation of the conventional system is wire-based, expensive,
and cannot transfer real-time seamless information. To mitigate, proposed a novel real-time,
low-cost wireless vibration system. In this context, design and implement an economical wireless system to monitor PPV effectively. Further, discuss the overall architecture, integrating
of hardware, and implementation of software protocols in the process of making the wireless
system. Developed prototype having an accelerometer, Radio Frequency (RF) module, and
microcontroller unit. The system was installed at different locations in Mine-A, India and
obtained results ensure that PPV values are varied from 0.191 to 8.60 mm/sec.
1 INTRODUCTION
Drilling and Blasting (DAB) are the most pervasive excavation operations for rock fragmentations in the mining industry. Explosives are a valuable source of energy used to breakage,
excavation, and displacement of the rock mass. During the time of explosive detonates, a
large quantity of energy was realized. Only 20% of energy can be utilized for fragmenting the
rock and remain wasted away in the form of ground vibration, air blast, fly rock, and back
breaks (Ragam 2018a). The adverse effects of blast-induced ground vibration are the collapse
of nearby trees and live hood, get cracks in mine office buildings, and chances to failure overburden dumps. Recently, the complaints are rapidly increased given by mine resident people
owing to the effects of ground vibrations due to blasting. Thus, it is necessary to monitor
and control ground vibration. Usually, ground vibration can be expressed in terms of peak
particle velocity (PPV) and the units are an mm/s. Limit values for Blast-Induced Ground
Vibration (BIGV) are recommended in the standard by Directorate General of Mines Safety
(DGMS) circular No. 7 of 1997 in India. The permissible PPV of ground vibration at a
sensitive structure should be below 5 mm/s (Ragam 2018b). Researchers, academicians, and
scientists are widely used conventional type seismographs to measure the PPV in various
mine case studies. The conventional systems such as Instantel Blast mate-III, Minimate Plus,
Minimate Pro, UVS1500, MR 202-CE etc. are installed to evaluate ground vibration levels
(Nimaje 2019) in open cast mines (Fig. 1). The presently used conventional instruments have
one to three geophone sensors to measure PPV (mm/sec) and one microphone sensor for air
blast measurement (dB). The prices of the available systems are starting from US $4500–7000
dollars.
1.1 Limitations of existing systems
The conventional devices like Instantel Blast mate-III, Minimate Plus, Minimate Pro,
UVS1500, MR 202-CE used for measuring the PPV are cable-based communication system
© 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-367-33604-2
595
Development of blast-induced ground vibration wireless
monitoring system
Ragam Prashanth & D.S. Nimaje
National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, India
ABSTRACT: In recent decades, the ground vibration induced by blasting is an inevitable
outcome and severely damages surrounding structures. Hence, it is essential to monitor
the ground vibration to evaluate and control the adverse consequences of blasting. Several
conventional instruments were widely adopted to measure vibration in terms of Peak Particle
Velocity (PPV). The major limitation of the conventional system is wire-based, expensive,
and cannot transfer real-time seamless information. To mitigate, proposed a novel real-time,
low-cost wireless vibration system. In this context, design and implement an economical wireless system to monitor PPV effectively. Further, discuss the overall architecture, integrating
of hardware, and implementation of software protocols in the process of making the wireless
system. Developed prototype having an accelerometer, Radio Frequency (RF) module, and
microcontroller unit. The system was installed at different locations in Mine-A, India and
obtained results ensure that PPV values are varied from 0.191 to 8.60 mm/sec.
1 INTRODUCTION
Drilling and Blasting (DAB) are the most pervasive excavation operations for rock fragmentations in the mining industry. Explosives are a valuable source of energy used to breakage,
excavation, and displacement of the rock mass. During the time of explosive detonates, a
large quantity of energy was realized. Only 20% of energy can be utilized for fragmenting the
rock and remain wasted away in the form of ground vibration, air blast, fly rock, and back
breaks (Ragam 2018a). The adverse effects of blast-induced ground vibration are the collapse
of nearby trees and live hood, get cracks in mine office buildings, and chances to failure overburden dumps. Recently, the complaints are rapidly increased given by mine resident people
owing to the effects of ground vibrations due to blasting. Thus, it is necessary to monitor
and control ground vibration. Usually, ground vibration can be expressed in terms of peak
particle velocity (PPV) and the units are an mm/s. Limit values for Blast-Induced Ground
Vibration (BIGV) are recommended in the standard by Directorate General of Mines Safety
(DGMS) circular No. 7 of 1997 in India. The permissible PPV of ground vibration at a
sensitive structure should be below 5 mm/s (Ragam 2018b). Researchers, academicians, and
scientists are widely used conventional type seismographs to measure the PPV in various
mine case studies. The conventional systems such as Instantel Blast mate-III, Minimate Plus,
Minimate Pro, UVS1500, MR 202-CE etc. are installed to evaluate ground vibration levels
(Nimaje 2019) in open cast mines (Fig. 1). The presently used conventional instruments have
one to three geophone sensors to measure PPV (mm/sec) and one microphone sensor for air
blast measurement (dB). The prices of the available systems are starting from US $4500–7000
dollars.
1.1 Limitations of existing systems
The conventional devices like Instantel Blast mate-III, Minimate Plus, Minimate Pro,
UVS1500, MR 202-CE used for measuring the PPV are cable-based communication system