U/G drilling hole pattern:

High Powder factor than surface bench blasting

Only free face is tunnel face
Very constricted blasting round
Explosives are highly confined
Burdens are small.

TUNNELLEING/ DRIFITING METHODS:

 Full Face method:
 Entire cross section area is pulled/advanced in one blast
 Rock condition should be good
Top heading and Bench method:
 Upper half section is excavated and then lower half section is
removed in 1 or more benches with vertical or horizontal
holes.
 Used in large tunnel area (100 m2).
 Preferred in weak ground.
 Lower drilling cost and lower powder factor for vertical holes
case.
Type of Holes in a blasting Round of drifting:
 CUT:- Opening into solid face to create free face and void or
relief plane.
 CUT is a 2nd free face.
 X-section area of CUT is 1 to 4 m2.
 CUT portion should as deep as it is practicable.
 Higher the CUT depth, larger is the advance of tunnel.
 CUT holes located in upper/ lower centre gives better
fragmented, less compact and extended muck profile.
 PULL: is the linear advance for a round.
 CUT spreader holes: Closest to the cut holes
 Stoping holes: Between cut spreader holes, contour holes and
lifter holes.
 Contour holes: consists of Roof holes and Wall holes.:-
 They establish final shape of the tunnel.
 Placed with little spacing
 Lifter holes: Floor holes

Choice of cut holes: It depends upon, Depth of pull required,

Dimensions of the opening, Nature of strata, Type of drilling
m/c.
Patterns of CUT holes:
1. Angled cut hole
2. Parallel cut hole
3. Machine cut hole ( Coal cutting machine)
 Angled cut hole:
 Group of holes are inclined to the free face or axis of the
working face of Tunnel.
 Tunnel face is utilized as free face.
 This results a cavity, towards which the subsequent blasting
is directed.
 In angled cut use of orientation of the rock beds, available
joints and cracks, jointing pattern, lamination etc. is made.
 Used in soft and hard rocks.
 Angle cuts require very few number of holes and less
explosives consumption/advance.
Limitations of angled cut holes:
 The width of tunnel and size of drill with its mountings,
limit the hole angle.
 Accuracy of drilling: in some angled cut patterns, pair of
holes drilled should meet as close as possible. In practice it is
difficult to achieve, thereby, less pull is resulted.
 Dependence of blasthole depth on the width of drift as holes
require inclination. Difficult to collar and drill holes accurately
in the desired direction.
 Inclined holes are difficult to drill and need experienced
driller.
 Longer drill still is required for angled holes.
 These pattern sometimes results into fly rocks and high
consumption of explosives.
 Angle cuts are used in wide openings since, advance is
limited to 65% of the opening width.
 Advance per round is less than a Burn cut round because the
holes are drilled at an angle to the direction of advance.
A. V cut / Wedge cut:-
 Two rows of holes are drilled almost at the center of the face
(width-wise).
 When both sides holes doesn't meet at their apex, instead of
‘V’ a 'Wedge' is resulted.
 The angles of subsequent holes drilled at the same horizon
are increased in such a way that sides holes are at 90–95° to the
face.
 In harder strata (formations) a double/triple/series of ‘V or
Wedge’ can be drilled.
 ‘V’ holes are given the initial delay and they create free face
(slot/kerf/slit) for the subsequent holes to which delays are given
in an increasing order.
 The rest of the holes of the pattern are drilled parallel to the
axis of the drive/tunnel and blasted in a sequential order using
delay detonators.
 This pattern is suitable for medium hard to hard strata.
 Depth of pull with a V-cut is usually limited to about half the
width of the heading because of the space required to set up and
drill the angled holes.
A =advance in m;
W= width of face;
V = Cut angle (34.5 18.5°)
E = 1.5 to 3 m.

Guidelines for V cuts :

 An advance of 45 to 50% of tunnel width is achievable.
 More acute angle requires higher charge concentration in
the holes.
 The cut usually consists of two Vs; but for deeper round
these Vs could be three or four.
 Holes of within each ‘V’ should be given same delay number
and
 Delay interval of 50 ms between the consecutives Vs to allow
time for broken rock’s displacement and swelling.
 Rounds break better when the angle of the V-cut is at least
60 degrees.

B. Pyramid Cut (Variants: Truncated pyramid/Cone)

 A cluster of holes (having 4–6 holes) is drilled in the center of
face directing towards a common apex so that a pyramid is
formed after blasting.
 Angle of subsequent holes drilled at the same horizon are
increased in such a way that the round holes (at the sides)
are at 90–95° to the face.
 Due to high concentration of explosive near to apex, these
are used in very hard ground condition.
 Produces Long Throw.
 Not satisfactory for long rounds due to hole deviation.
Mostly used during Shaft sinking and Raising work and in
hard rock condition.

 C. Fan cut:
 Holes are drilled in fan like fashion in a horizontal plane.
 Holes are drilled at a horizon, 1–1.5 m above the floor
 From one side of the face to other side of the face, Angle are
an increasing order.
 First holes is at least angle while last hole is at 90–95°.
 First hole creates initial free face ditch/kerf
 Sometimes a second fan is drilled at another horizon within
0.3 m above or below this horizon.
 Then remaining holes are initiated with delay detonators.
 The holes are unsymmetrical so give uneven
advance/meterage/pull.
 This pattern is suitable for soft to medium hard strata.
 D. Draw cut/ Drag cut/ Hammer cut/Modified V-cut:
 Used in small heading where drill doesn't have enough room
to drill a cut in the centre of the face.
 It's like fan cut pattern in a vertical plane.
 When cut holes are blasted, an undercut (slot/ditch) at the
face is created.
 The drilling and blasting for the rest of the holes are directed
towards this cavity.
 This pattern is suitable for soft to medium hard strata.
 Parallel hole cuts
 A cluster of parallel shot holes, known as ‘cut’; is drilled
almost parallel to the direction of face.
 Post blasting, the cluster creates a cavity in the center of the
heading.
 Some of the holes are charged while others are kept empty.
 The shock waves when reflected at these empty holes, the
rock is shattered and subsequently blown out by the escaping
gases.
 Its variants break out Cylindrical/Rectangular area of
constant x-section perpendicular to the face.
 These patterns are suitable for hard, brittle and
homogeneous rocks.
 In hard rock mines, the opening size is usually small due to
economy reason, parallel hole cuts give higher rate of
progress.
 It is relatively simple to drill, because all holes are parallel.

Types of Parallel hole cuts:

 Large dia cuts: One or more large dia hole which are treated as
relief hole and are usually uncharged.
 Dia < 225mm
 Small dia Burn cut: All holes are of normal size out of which one or
more left uncharged.
 All holes must be parallel and with proper distance from one
another.
 No of holes and explosive consumption is higher.
 Used in small x-section tunnel area.
 Dia= 32mm to 70mm
 There is generally less throw with better fragmentation.
 The resultant muckpile is higher, so it provides a better platform
for scaling and bolting work.
 Due to closely spaced holes, dead pressing or pre-compression of
explosive take place in or near the burn cut area of the face.
 Hence, when emulsion-cartridge explosives are used, open relief
holes should be placed between the loaded cut holes to reduce hole
to hole shock pressures.
 Number of blast holes in a pattern for a Tunnel/ Drift:-
The number of blast holes (N) in a round can be divided into two
groups:
 Breaking in (cut-holes), Easers and bottom holes (Nb)
 Line (Peripheral) holes (Nl)
Whereas:
q – powder factor (kg/m3)
γ – explosive consumption/m length of hole (kg.)
c – a coefficient depending upon shape of workings,
For square section c =4;
For trapezoidal c = 4.2;
For arch c = 3.86.
S – cross sectional area of a working (m2)
B – width of working
b – average spacing of line holes (0.75 to 0.8m) irrespective of rock
properties and working’s cross-section.
γo – explosive consumption/m length of line holes (kg)

Powder factor q (kg/m3) =

Whereas:
q1 =1.5 to 0.15 depending as per very tough to jointed loose rocks.
f1 – coefficient allowing for the structure and texture of the rock
v – a factor by which additional resistance offered to blast by the
surrounding rock mass. For workings of limited cross sectional area and
with one free face v =6.5/√S
S – cross sectional area of a working (m2)
e – a factor that is indicative of the power of explosives. It varies from
0.8 to 1.17 (from least to highest powerful explosives).
dc – diameter of explosive cartridge.
 Hole diameter:

Whereas: -
γ= explosive consumption in kg/m,
d=diameter of hole
N= number of holes in a round.

Blasting during shaft sinking :

 In circular shafts, holes are placed on concentric circles.
 In rectangular shafts, holes are drilled as per Horizontal drift.
 Full face method: Wedge cut and pyramid cut are mostly used,
however these cuts higher advance rate/round with more over
break.
 Benching /Step cut method: It is adopted if the make of water is
high and shaft is of a large cross-section, so that the face can be
 divided into two portions. One of the portion becomes sump to
allow a continuous dewatering.
 Wedge cut is more popular in the rectangular shafts whereas
pyramid cut in the circular ones.
 Number of holes in a pattern is a function of hole diameter, shaft
diameter and type of strata.
 Number of holes, if drilling is with a shaft jumbo having hole dia. in
the range of 45–55 mm could be used:

Where A1 is x-section area in m2.

 Blasting in shaft sinking:
 As shaft bottoms during sinking are usually full of water; hence,
high-density water resistant explosive such as emulsion with
booster and Nonel detonators are used.
 Use of water or sand-clay mixture can be made to act as a stemming
material.
 Usually series-parallel connections are made to connect the
detonators at the face and this circuit is then connected to the
blasting cable suspended in the shaft and leading right up to the
surface.
Blasting off the solid during Development of B & P method:
Permitted explosive: The explosive reaction is extremely fast and produces short flame due
to flame quenching ingredients. The heat absorber ingredients absorb the heat of reaction which is
capable of igniting the CH4 and coal dust. The reaction should produce large amount of inert gas
which are unable to further react with the available oxygen of the air.
 To create an initial cut, holes need to be drilled in inclined position
so as to provide direction and force for coal to move outwardly, to
create free face for other holes.
 Wider the opening (i.e. Free face) easier it would be for other holes
to perform better. It is advisable to give zero delay for 6 cut holes in
the centre.
 When Blast hole length >70% of seam height, long sockets will be
left and explosive energy will be wasted and P.F. will be reduced.
 Stemming < 60% of blast hole length may lead to blown out shot.
 Cut holes should be charged more as compared to other holes.
 Initiation sequence should be maintained so as that cut holes give
way first, nearest hole next and farthest holes last.
Blasting during Longwall method: Holes are inclined 45º-60º angle
with face.