The energy partitioning of limestone production blasts has been measured under well controlled conditions; from rock properties determination, structural mapping and monitoring of drilling and charging, to VOD, 3D accelerometer and bench face movement measurements during the blast to post-blast fragment size measurements. The efficiency of the transfer of energy from the charges to the surrounding rock has been estimated by introducing a new explosives test, the cylinder expansion test, which is discussed to be-gin with.
Hereby in-hole losses, seismic energy, kinetic energy of throw and fragmentation energy have been calculated. For the AN doped gassed bulk emulsion used in the quarry, it is estimated that 60-70 % of the explosive energy is transmitted to the rock, that the seismic and kinetic energy terms both amount to roughly 3-12 % and the fragmentation energy to less than 1-2 %. One candidate for the remaining losses, which are larger than the other three terms together, is the crushing of the blast-hole region. A rough estimate for the energy partitioning in bench blasting rounds is finally given.