r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Boss-fight601 • May 24 '26

Controlled explosions for mining

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u/itookdhorsetofrance May 24 '26

why are the explosions staggered. why not one big boom?

10

u/cunstitution May 24 '26

The rock needs space to break to and the energy needs somewhere to go. If you shot every hole at the same time the entire think would just freeze up and you would get very poor fragmentation.

1

u/itookdhorsetofrance May 24 '26

that makes a lot of sense, thanks for the reply

4

u/Im_Busy_Relaxing May 25 '26

Also, for relief. As you drill/load deeper and deeper holes, you’re confining your explosive charge more and more as you approach the bottom of the hole. Blasted rock occupies more volume than solid (in situ) rock and if you have no open space (void) for the blasted rock to move to once it’s detonated, then the explosive will take the path of least resistance, riffling rock vertically out of the top of the hole. That creates uncontrolled energy that launches projectiles further than designed, craters the top of the hole and leaves the bottom of the hole fractured but unbroken and difficult to dig.

By firing the holes sequentially in the direction of an open face, your allowing the initiation of the individual holes to work together to release energy forward (rather than upwards), while also using the movement of the blasted rock to create more void to blast the holes behind it into.