Prediction of near field overpressure from quarry blasting

This paper investigates the propagation of airblast or pressure waves in air produced by bench blasting (i.e. detonation of the explosive in a row of blastholes, breaking the burden of rock towards the free vertical face of the block). Peak overpressure is calculated as a function of blasting parameters (explosive mass per delay and velocity at which the detonation sequence proceeds along the bench) and the polar coordinates of the position of interest (distance to the source and azimuth with respect to the free face). The model has been fitted to empirical data using linear least squares. The data set is composed of 122 airblast records monitored at distances less than 400 m in 41 production blasts carried out in two quarries. The model is statistically significant and has a determination coefficient of 0.87. The formula is validated from 12 airblast measurements gathered in five additional blasts.     

Numerical simulation of a low-emission gas turbine combustor using KIVA-II

A numerical study was performed to investigate chemically reactive flows with sprays inside a staged turbine combustor (STC) using a modified version of the KIVA-II code. This STC consists of a fuel nozzle (FN), a rich-burn (RB) zone, a converging connecting pipe, a quick-quench (QQ) zone, a diverging connecting pipe and a lean-combustion (LC) zone. From the computational viewpoint, it is more efficient to split the STC into two subsystems, called FN/RB zone and QQ/LC zones, and the numerical solutions were obtained separately for each subsystem. This paper addresses the numerical results of the STC which is equipped with an advanced airblast fuel nozzle. The airblast nozzle has two fuel injection passages and four air flow passages. The input conditions used in this study were chosen similar to those encountered in advanced combustion systems. Preliminary results generated illustrate some of the major features of the flow and temperature fields inside the STC. Velocity, temperature and some critical species information inside the FN/RB zone are given. Formation of the co- and counter-rotating bulk flow and the sandwiched-ring-shaped temperature field, typical of the confined inclined jet-in-cross-flow, can be seen clearly in the QQ/LC zones. The calculations of the mass-weighted standard deviation and the pattern factor of temperature revealed that the mixing performance of the STC is very promising. The temperature of the fluid leaving the LC zone is very uniform. Prediction of the NO_x emission shows that there is no excessive thermal NO_x produced in the QQ/LC zones for the case studied. From the results obtained so far, it appears that the modified KIVA-II code can be used to guide the low-emission combustion experiments.     

Operational and geological parameters in the assessing blast induced airblast-overpressure in quarries

Airblast disturbances, like ground vibrations, are undesirable by-products of blasting. Airblast damage and annoyance are directly related to factors such as blast design, weather and terrain conditions, and human response. But, unlike blast induced ground vibrations, airblast impacts the structures through the roof, walls and windows leading to human annoyance. Because any structure rumbling and rattling, including blast induced vibrations can fuel the fear of people. The experiences on airblast-overpressure (AOp) measurements show that it is sometime impracticable to set a maximum AOp limit, with or without allowed appropriate percentile of exceedances, because of the significance and unpredictability of variable geological conditions and the restrictive character of this kind of limitations in blasting practice. We therefore utilized the method of modified scaled distances (SDs) based on empirical equations considering such factors as blasting parameters and geological parameters of rock mass for bench blasting in quarries. The aim of this application was to get an environmentally friendly and technically practicable results by using site specific SDs instead of conservative SD values. This method was realized in a quarry in Istanbul with numerous experimental shots. In these experiments, the levels of airblast-overpressures were investigated as a function of variable conditions. The results show that the performances of these estimations are governed by the site-specific character of these empirical relations.     

Liquid sheet disintegration at high pressure: An experimental approach

The primary atomization was studied in a 300 μm thickness water sheet, generated by a planar airblast atomizer. The research novelty consisted in increasing the airflow absolute pressure from atmospheric conditions to 6 bar. The experimental techniques employed included Oscillometry by Laser Intensity Reflexion (ORIL), Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) and flow visualization by fast video camera. The atomization mechanisms, described in the literature at atmospheric environments, were observed at high pressure conditions, for a constant momentum flux ratio. Furthermore, a new atomization mechanism was observed at high values of this ratio. Finally, dimensionless relations have been proposed for the global oscillation frequency, minimum air oscillation velocity, break-up distance and transversal wavelength. To cite this article: V.G. Fernandez et al., C. R. Mecanique 337 (2009).     

Delayed mesh relaxation for multi-material ALE formulation

Multi-Material Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) finite element methods can solve large deformations in fast dynamic problems like explosions because the mesh motion can be independent of the material motion. However materials must flow between elements and this advection involves numerical dissipations. The rezoning mesh method presented in this paper was designed to reduce these numerical errors for shock wave propagation. The mesh moves to refine the elements near the shock front. This refinement limits the advection fluxes and so the numerical diffusion. This technique is applied to the numerical simulations of airblast problems for which a parameter controlling the mesh refinement is studied.