Drilling and blasting remain central to tunneling in Sweden, where high standards for minimal overbreak and damage drive the research towards a deeper understanding of blast-induced cracks. Recent research rethinks the approach of examining the effects of explosive detonation and its interaction with the surrounding rock. This paper synthesizes advances from small-scale studies on crack initiation, development, and coalescence during blasting. Key parameters, such as decoupling ratio, specific charge, and the strategic use of empty guideholes significantly influence the extent and direction of blast-induced cracks. High-speed imaging offers valuable information about crack propagation behavior. The results enhance the understanding of how these blast design parameters govern crack propagation, enabling the tailoring of the blast designs that promote desired cutting cracks while minimizing the unwanted or damaging ones. The emphasis of this work refers to tunnel contour stability and efficient rock cutting, contributing to crack propagation control. The findings provide a foundation for evaluating blast damage, supporting a more precise, sustainable, and safer tunneling while identifying gaps for future research. 

Toxic fume formation, particularly carbon monoxide (CO), is a major concern in ammonium nitrate fuel oil (ANFO) and emulsion explosives, impacting both safety and operational costs. This study demonstrates that using ultra-clean, synthetic gas-to-liquids (GTL) fuel phases used in an emulsion matrix can reduce CO emissions by 20% compared to conventional mineral oils. The reduction is attributed to the combination of chemical composition—primarily isoparaffins—and physical properties of GTL fuels. Tests were conducted in a controlled blasting chamber at the Swedish Blasting Research Centre (Swebrec), ensuring consistent and replicable results. Emulsions were manufactured and tested multiple times in two different campaigns, confirming lower CO emissions but varying NOx emissions. The findings highlight the importance of fuel phase selection in explosive performance and toxic emissions. A literature model was used to elaborate on the potential impact on re-entry time. The study underscores the value of controlled testing environments for accurately assessing post-blast gas emissions.

In mining, tunneling, and other blasting applications, excessive rock fracturing can compromise stability and deteriorate environmental and economic outcomes. Predicting the extent of blast-induced cracks is critical to accurately assess structural damage and optimize blast design. Seven blast tests were performed on 150 × 300 mm cylinders with a central blasthole of 280 mm length. PETN cord (5 g/m) was used, and the decoupling ratios (f) of 2.5, 4.2, and 5.0 were achieved by varying the blasthole diameters. In this study, qualitative and quantitative aspects of the induced cracks (number, type, velocities, propagation patterns, etc.) were examined using ultra-high-speed (UHS) photography and 2D Digital Image Correlation (DIC) method. Numerical modeling with LS-DYNA was conducted to simulate the experiments, to expand the analysis from 2D to 3D. The experimental results showed that crack initiation, gas ejection, and damage level decreased when increasing the decoupling ratio; notably, no damage occurred when f = 5. Crack propagation velocity using the DIC results showed V_c = (839.40 ± 46.57) m/s. A model for V_c from the experimental results was established through curve fitting with a R² > 97%. The DIC analysis enabled the distinction of the fracture process zone and the crack tip location. The numerical modeling results provided a realistic estimation of the cracks and damage compared to the experiments. The experimental and numerical results show that increasing the decoupling ratio reduces qualitative and quantitatively the blast-induced cracks, demonstrating how blast-induced damage could be limited.

Blast-induced damage is a key determinant of the stability, safety and economic performance of excavations. Controlled blasting techniques aim to control the crack development by inducing intended cracks between adjacent blastholes while minimizing the damage to the surrounding rock. Despite the extensive research, the link between blast design parameters and the initiation, propagation, directionality and final network of the cracks remains insufficiently understood.

This work presents an integrated scientific analysis based on experiments conducted in small rock-like cylinders using ultra-high-speed photography and two-dimensional (2D) digital image correlation methods to investigate the blast-induced crack behavior. The combined data sets allow a systematic evaluation of qualitative crack patterns, quantitative damage indicators and crack propagation velocities.

The results demonstrate that the influence of the decoupling ratio on crack trajectories, coalescence modes and damage distribution is greater than the delay time between blastholes. Lower decoupling ratios promote earlier crack initiation, crack paths with few curves and therefore, cleaner cuts between blastholes. Meanwhile, higher decoupling ratios tend to produce curved paths and circumferential branching, which demonstrate the reduced stress transfer. Delay time primarily modified stress redistribution and crack symmetry rather than significantly affecting the inter-blasthole crack path propagation. Acting as crack attractors, guideholes demonstrated their beneficial effects in reducing blast-induced damage (unintended cracks). The findings provide experimental insights relevant to controlled blasting designs and highlight directions for future research focused on correlation with numerical calibration and field scale tests.

In Sweden, drilling and blasting is generally regarded as the predominant excavation method for tunnel construction. While many studies focus on the blast performance within the tunnel perimeter, few studies have examined the effects of the induced cracks behavior in these designs (where the charge is decoupled). This work aims to improve the understanding of crack initiation and development during contour blasting. The investigation consists of a small–scale blast test to study the crack development around a blasthole using the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technique. The experimental setup involved a cylindrical rock–like sample with a central blasthole and a decoupled PETN cord (Pentaerythritol tetranitrate) explosive charge by 3.9. The data was collected with an ultra–highspeed camera (UHSC) and processed using image engineering. Based on the experiment, numerical modelling was carried out to compare and investigate the behavior of the cracks. The analysis approach included tracking crack development using the strain values for both experiment and numerical modelling. These results emphasize the importance of combining the strain analysis in different directions to find the crack development sequence. The experimental and numerical results show good consistency, providing valuable information on crack development behavior around a blasthole. 

The propagation of cracks is a critical factor in the efficiency, stability, and safety of the blast in mining and tunneling operations. Understanding and controlling blast−induced cracks helps achieving goals such as reducing overbreak and minimizing damage zones. Despite interest in minimizing blast damage, few experimental studies have examined the effects of empty holes (guideholes) on blast−induced cracks. This work explores the influences of different blast designs on crack propagation patterns using an ultra−high−speed camera (UHSC) and the digital image correlation (DIC) method in small−scale blast experiments. Four samples of rock−like material with a 2.5 decoupling ratio and empty guideholes were blasted with PETN cord (3.6 and 5 g/m). The configurations included: two samples with a central blasthole with two and four guideholes, a sample with two blastholes with an empty guidehole, and a sample with four blastholes and a central guidehole. The experimental setup consisted of the samples and a DIC system with one UHSC to capture in 2D how the detonation of the different blast designs affects the material behavior. The configuration had a spatial resolution of 0.6 mm per pixel and a time resolution of 4.83 μs. DIC analysis revealed the exact location of the areas of cracks in the strain development, and the development velocity of several points along the cracks was calculated using the displacement results. The findings indicate that the use of guideholes has a greater influence than the specific charge on the number and the type of propagated cracks. There was no evidence that the crack development velocity (up to 1354.6 m/s) was more influenced by the specific charge than the propagation paths or the blasthole configuration. Cracks were classified considering their final role (cut cracks or damaging cracks) and shown to have a direct relationship with the blast design. The present research highlights the importance of combining qualitative and DIC analysis, which overall enhanced the understanding of crack propagation patterns and serves to improve explosive design strategies and optimize underground excavation processes.

Careful blasting is a controlled blasting technique that is often used to minimise theoverbreak and damage to the remaining rock mass. Although decoupled charges in blastholes arecommon, the influence of empty guideholes in directing crack propagation has been less investigated.This study presents small-scale experiments using magnetite mortar cylinders with two and four emptyguideholes around a central blasthole, charged with 0.28 kg/m3 of PETN with a 2.5 decoupling ratio. Thiswork investigates the influence of the different guidehole configurations on crack development throughultra high-speed (UHS) photography and digital image correlation (DIC). The results indicate that theguideholes significantly influence the trajectories of the cracks, attracting their development and thusreducing the development of unwanted cracks. These findings provide insight into blast-induced cracksand contribute to knowledge for designing blasts where precise control of the cracks is critical. 

Blasting is widely used in civil and mining engineering projects, with the side effect of introducing damage to the remaining rock. The damage can be differentiated from the cracks in the remaining rock, which increases the concerns of safety and requirements for rock support. In situ study of crack development remains complicated and costly; therefore, small-scale blasting experiments are a viable alternative for a detailed investigation of the crack propagation behavior. To fill the gap, this study examined a small-scale blasting test by investigating the velocity of the cracks implementing the digital image correlation (DIC) technique and avoiding contact methods such as strain gauges. An ultra-high-speed camera (UHSC) was used to record the blasting test in a single blasthole rock-like sample with a PETN cord. The experimental design underwent calibration until achieving the configuration of the equipment while ensuring the safety distance. The developed experimental methodology was tested successfully capturing the crack behavior. The analysis outcomes showed that the raw UHSC data needed to be preprocessed to enhance the tracking of cracks with the DIC method. The findings of the DIC data analysis indicated a fluctuation in the propagation velocity along the cracks (889–1129 m/s), revealing that the proposed methodology positively contributes to the propagation behavior of using the DIC method to track the blast-induced cracks.

Sublevel caving (SLC) is a mass mining method based upon the utilization of gravity flow of blasted ore and caved waste rock. Production blasting has significant impact on the efficiency and productivity of SLC output, affecting material fragmentation, flow and recovery. Misfires could occur during blasting in SLC, which results in the loss of explosives and poor fragmentation. Usually, the blastholes are top-initiated with redundant lower primers set at + 25 ms as a precaution. If the top primers fail, the lower primers may initiate the explosive, which will induce out-of-sequence delays that can influence fragmentation and gravity flow. This work investigated the impact of misfires and out-of-sequence delays on fragmentation and gravity flow through numerical simulations using a coupled finite element and discrete element method. Different scenarios of misfires and out-of-sequence delays were studied, and the fragment size distribution was obtained to evaluate the blasting performance. The material flow behaviour was investigated to assess the gravity flow process. The results indicated that misfires significantly affect the fragmentation and the gravity flow process while the effects of out-of-sequence delays are not so significant for the investigated cases.