DEVELOPMENT OF THE KUZ-RAM MODEL TO BLASTING IN A LIMESTONE QUARRY

It is very important to know the degree of disintegration beforehand in open quarry bench blasting in terms of blasting efficiency. Kuznetsov (1973), Cunningham (1987), and Ouchterlony (2005) have developed the Rosin-Rammler distribution function for estimating the degrees of fragmentation (Rosin & Rammler, 1933). However, models they developed do not give realistic results for blast surfaces where there are a lot of discontinuity characteristics with broken and fissured areas due to the difference in structural characteristics of the rocks. In this study, average fragmentative distribution of the heap formed as a result of several blasting tests in a quarry belonging to BATICIM have been separately determined by using a dimensional analysis program with Wipfrag image processing technique and Kuz-Ram estimation model. Average granular size correction has been carried out with the approach of accepting as fine-grain the areas that couldn't be determined by means of image analysis programs and that were neglected in the analysis. Subsequently, the land coefficient in Kuz-Ram model was determined to be 0.0383 rather than 0.06 for the said quarry by taking the average dimension values determined by Wipfrag method as reference point.