Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems 37 (2019) 3137–3148 3137

DOI:10.3233/JIFS-179116
IOS Press

Numerical simulation of the effect

of empty hole between adjacent blast
holes in the perforation process of blasting
Huachao Lia , Xiantang Zhanga,b,∗ , Dan Lic , Linmei Wub,d , Wenle Gaoa and Hongmin Zhoua
a Shandong Key Laboratory of Civil Engineering Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, Shandong
University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, PR China
b Centre for Future Materials, The University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba QLD, Australia
c College of Earth Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, PR China
d College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, PR China

Abstract. In order to study the effect of empty hole between adjacent blast holes in the perforation process of blasting, based
on rock blasting theory, the authors use ANSYS/LS-DYNA to simulate the process of rock fragmentation of double blast
holes blasting with one empty hole at the center position. The rock fragmentation effect by blasting, the propagation of cracks
between adjacent blast holes and the pressure state of the element near the empty hole are analyzed. The results showed that
the empty hole has a guiding effect on cracks propagation between blast holes and the effect of cracks propagation in the
direction of blast holes connection is better. The peak pressure in vertical direction near the empty hole is the largest and the
pressure propagation velocity in horizontal direction is the fastest. And with the increase of blast holes spacing, the pressure
near the empty hole and the pressure change rate also decrease. The numerical simulation results show that when the blast
holes spacing is 0.4 m∼0.6 m, the effect of rock fragmentation and cracks propagation between blast holes are good. The
above research results are consistent with theoretical analysis, which can provide reference for selecting reasonable blast
holes spacing for engineering.

Keywords: Empty hole, blasting fragmentation, cracks propagation, blast holes spacing, numerical simulation

1. Introduction is paid to blasting design and construction safety. The

At present, drilling and blasting method is still the
main method to break rock for advancing working
face in blasting construction of tunnel and under-
ground roadway excavation engineering. With the
rapid development of blasting technology and theory,
the demand of the blasting quality is getting higher
and higher. At the same time, more and more attention
∗ Corresponding
author. Xiantang Zhang, Shandong Key Lab-
oratory of Civil Engineering Disaster Prevention and Mitigation,
Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590,
PR China. E-mail: zzxhtm@163.com.
engineering practice proves that only studying rea-
sonable blasting theory and correctly understanding
the initiation-propagation-coalescence law of cracks
between blast holes can the quality of construction
be better controlled and the blasting design effect be
reached the desired effect.
In parallel cut blasting in which arrangement
method of blast holes is charge holes and central
deslagging empty hole [1, 2], the empty hole can pro-
vide a free surface for the stress wave generated by
the explosive explosion in the charge holes, which
can make the stress wave to reflect near the empty
hole. The reflected tensile stress wave generated by

ISSN 1064-1246/19/$35.00 © 2019 – IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved
3138 H. Li et al. / Numerical simulation of the effect of empty hole between adjacent blast holes
the reflection will be superimposed to increase the
fragmentation range of the rock mass and improve
the fragmentation effect inside the cavity. During the
blasting of surrounding blast holes excavated in tun-
nel, roadway and chamber, the arrangement of empty
hole between the charge holes has a guiding effect
on cracks propagation between adjacent blast holes.
The propagation direction of the main crack can be
cracked according to the established plan. There-
fore, reasonable use of the empty hole can effectively
improve rock fragmentation result by blasting [3–8].
So the empty hole effect is widely used in cut blasting
and controlled directional fracture blasting.
This article uses the finite element analysis soft-
ware ANSYS/LS-DYNA to introduce the JWL state
equation to describe the explosion process, and
dynamically analysis the blasting perforation process
of double blast holes-coupled charge blasting with
one empty hole at the center position. The mechanism
of cracks propagation between adjacent blast holes
and the final effect of cracks coalescence under dif-
ferent blast holes spacing are analyzed. The research
results can supplement shortage in this field and
provide reference for determining the arrangement
method of empty hole in parallel cut blasting.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Sec-
tion 2 shows the related work. Section 3 analyzes
the mechanisms of rock fragmentation and the empty
hole. Section 4 establishes the calculation model
of numerical simulation. Numerical simulation and
results analysis are given in Section 5. Finally, Sec-
tion 6 outlines the conclusions.
2. Related work
As for internal mechanism of the empty hole, many
experts and scholars have done a lot of researches
and got huge achievements. Zhongwen Yue et al. [9]
simulated the blasting process of plexiglass panels
with a dynamic caustics experiment and analyzed the
stress state near the empty hole and the process of
cracks initiation and propagation; Haibo Wang et al.
[10] simulated the first-order cut blasting based on
ANSYS/LS-DYNA and studied the action process of
the explosion stress wave near the empty hole, and
verified the rationality of the experimental blasting
parameters; Daneng Lin et al. [11] established a phys-
ical and mechanical model of blasting cavity based on
parallel cut blasting with the empty hole, and studied
the movement behavior of rock fragments. Renshu
Yang et al. [12] used the dynamic caustics experiment
system for blasting loads to analyze the effect of the
empty hole diameter on the cracks propagation law
and the stress intensity factor. From overall view, the
above researches have made a certain analysis on
the empty hole effect and mechanism, which has an
important impact on engineering practice. However,
there is still a lack of researches on the rock blast-
ing process with the empty hole under different blast
holes spacing.
3. Mechanism analysis
3.1. Mechanism of rock fragmentation
and cracks propagation
The common rock in engineering is a brittle mate-
rial, and the compressive strength of brittle materials
is often much greater than tensile strength. In general,
the tensile strength of rock is only 1/20∼1/10 of its
compressive strength. In the process of rock blasting,
except for a small range of rock near the explosives is
damaged by pressure due to strong blasting loads, the
rest of the damage is mostly tensile failure. And with
the maturity of blasting theory and the analysis of
experimental research, many scholars began to gen-
erally recognize the theory of explosion stress wave
and explosion gas combined to break rock. That is, the
explosion stress wave in the initial stage of blasting
will cause the initial cracks in rock mass, and then
the quasi-static effect of explosion gas will further
“split” the initial cracks and make cracks propagate
further.
After explosion, the explosion stress wave prop-
agates far away from the charge holes in the rock
mass, and gradually decreases into elastoplastic stress
wave [13–19]. The radial stress and tangential stress
at a point in the rock after stress wave action can be
expressed as:
 −α
r
σr = p (1)
rb
σθ = bσr (2)
Where σr and σθ are radial stress and tangential
stress in the rock (Pa), r is the distance from any point
in the rock to the charge center (m), rb is the radius
of the blast holes (m), α is the attenuation index of
the load propagation, α = 2 − b, b is the lateral stress
coefficient, b = μ/(1 − μ), μ is the Poisson’s ratio
of the rock.
 H. Li et al. / Numerical simulation of the effect of empty hole between adjacent blast holes 3139

In the columnar coupled charge rock blasting, the stress is greater than its tensile strength, the rock
initial compressive stress acting on the wall of the near the empty hole will be damaged. Taking the
blast holes can be expressed as: references [1] and [2] as an example, in parallel cut
blasting in which the blast holes arrangement method
1
p= ρ0 DV2 le n (3) is four charge holes and one central empty hole,
8 according to the relevant theory of elastic mechan-
Where p is the initial compressive stress peak act- ics, stress concentration will occur near the empty
ing on the wall of blast holes (Pa), ρ0 is the charge hole. The peak stress state can be expressed as [20]:

1    
density, DV is the detonation velocity of explosive,
le is the charge coefficient of the blast holes, n is the σrr = 1 − k2 (σθ − σr ) + 1 − 4k2 + 3k4
stress increase coefficient when the explosive product 2

col-lides with the wall of the blast holes.
It can be concluded from the above formula that (σr + σθ ) cos 2θ (6)
when other conditions remain unchanged, the initial

peak compressive stress acting on the wall of the blast 1    
holes is constant. Therefore, as the distance from the σθθ = 1 + k2 (σθ − σr ) + 1 + 3k4
2
point to the charge center increases, the radial stress at 
one point in the rock will decrease, and the tangential (σr + σθ ) cos 2θ (7)
stress also will decrease.
1  
According to the rock failure criterion, the rock
will be crushed when the effective stress of a point τrθ = 1 + 2k2 − 3k4 (σr + σθ ) cos 2θ (8)
in the rock is greater than its dynamic compressive 2
strength, and this phenomenon mainly occurs in the k = r0 /rB (9)
crushed zone. When the tensile stress is greater than
its dynamic tensile strength, the rock will be damaged Where σrr and σθθ are the radial stress and tangen-
and the cracks will be further propagated. This phe- tial stress of the rock near the empty hole (Pa), τrθ is
nomenon mainly occurs in the fracture zone. It can the shear stress of the rock near the empty hole (Pa),
be expressed by formula (4) and (5): σr and σθ are radial stress and tangential stress in the
The compressive failure: rock (Pa), r0 is the empty hole radius (m), rB is the
 distance from any point in rock to the center of the
3 2 empty hole (m), θ is the angle between any direction
σVM = σ > σcd (4)
2 ij and the direction of the blast holes connection.
The tensile failure: Substituting formula (2) into formula (6) (7) (8)
can be obtained:

σt > σtd (5) σr    
σrr = 1 − k2 (b − 1) + 1 − 4k2 + 3k4
Where σVM is the Von Mises criterion effective 2
stress (Pa), σij (i, j = 1, 2, 3) is the stress compo- 
nent at some point in the rock (Pa), σt is the tensile (b + 1) cos 2θ (10)
stress (Pa), σcd and σtd are the dynamic compressive
strength and dynamic tensile strength of the rock (Pa). 
σr    
σθθ = 1 + k2 (b − 1) + 1 + 3k4
2
3.2. Mechanism of the empty hole 
(b + 1) cos 2θ (11)
It is generally believed that the empty hole can not
only provide new free surface for blasting, but also
σr  
guide cracks propagation and coalescence between τrθ = 1 + 2k2 − 3k4 (b + 1) cos 2θ (12)
the blast holes. The compression wave is reflected 2
into the tensile wave due to the free surface and the When k = 1, it can be got from equations (10) and
tensile wave is superimposed on the subsequent part (12) that the radial stress and shear stress near the
of the compression wave. It is possible to produce the empty hole are 0, and there is only tangent stress σθθ .
tensile stress near the empty hole. When the tensile Let dσθθ /dθ = 0 and it can be found that θ = ±π.
3140 H. Li et al. / Numerical simulation of the effect of empty hole between adjacent blast holes

Under this condition the tangential stress maximum

is:

σθθ max = (3b + 1) σr (13)

Many theories believe that when there is the empty

hole [20–23], under the blasting loads, the peak ten-
sile stress will be produced in the direction of the
blast holes connection near the empty hole. When
the tensile stress is greater than the tensile strength of
the rock at this point, the rock will be damaged and
cracks will appear in the direction of the blast holes
connection. As the distance from any point of the
rock to the charge center increases, the radial stress
and tangential stress at the point in the rock decrease.
Therefore, according to Formula (10) (11) (12), as the
blast holes spacing increases, the stress of the element
near the empty hole will decrease and the degree of
tensile damage of the rock near the empty hole will Fig. 1. Blasting model (Unit: mm).
decrease accordingly.

hole. And the distance between the two charging

4. Establish a numerical simulation holes and the empty hole is the same, as shown in
calculation model Fig. 1.
The H-J-C model is used to describe the constitu-
In parallel cut blasting in which the blast holes tive relation of the rock, and the H-J-C model can
arrangement method is four charge holes and one simulate the dynamic response of the rock under
central empty hole, the four charge holes are centrally blasting loads [29]. Based on rocks that are more
symmetric. Therefore, during the numerical simula- common in engineering, combined with the rock
tion process, it can be considered that the effect of mechanics experiments made in reference [30], the
stress wave generated in charge holes in horizon- material parameters of the rock model are reasonably
tal direction and vertical direction is the same and selected, as shown in Table 1.
the stress wave superposition method is the same. To The explosive calculation model selected the
simplify this process and clearly analysis the mech- constitutive model of *MAT HIGH EXPLOSIVE
anism of the empty hole in this cut blasting method. BURN in LS-DYNA, coupled charge. And to choose
Based on the above rock fragmentation theories and JWL state equation which can express the relation-
the mechanism of empty hole, using the dynamic ship between the explosion pressure and the volume
finite element analysis software ANSYS/LS-DYNA, expansion change.
selecting reasonable material parameters and state The JWL state equation and the pressure at any
equations, the authors established a double blast point in the explosion source are [1]:
holes-coupled charge blasting model with one empty
hole at the center line of the two blast holes and sim- pd = Fp(V , E ) (14)
ulated the blasting process [24–26]. In this paper, the
numerical simulation of double blast holes-coupled 2(t−t1 )DAc max
3Vc t > t1
charge blasting with one empty hole is all using F= (15)
0 t ≤ t1
SOLID164 elements. A Fluid-structure interaction
algorithm is selected for the calculation model [27,
 
28]. ω
According to needs, the length, width and thick- p =A 1− e−R1 V
R1 V
ness of the rock model are 6, 6 and 0.01 m. The  
ω ωE0
diameter of the blast holes is 5 cm. The blast holes 1 +B 1 − e−R2 V + (16)
and 2 are charge holes. The blast hole 3 is the empty R2 V V
 H. Li et al. / Numerical simulation of the effect of empty hole between adjacent blast holes 3141

Table 1
Material parameters of rock model
ρ/(kg/m3 ) G/(Pa) A B C N fc/(Pa)
2.4E3 14.86E9 0.79 1.60 0.007 0.61 48E6
T/(Pa) EPS0 EFMIN SFMAX Pc/(Pa) μc Pl/(Pa)
4E6 1E-6 0.01 7.0 16.0E6 0.001 0.81E9
μl D1 D2 K1 /(Pa) K2 /(Pa) K3 /(Pa) fs
0.10 0.04 1.0 85E9 -171E9 208E9 0.004

Table 2
Explosive and state equation parameters
Density/ Detonation velocity/ CJ pressure/ JWL state equation parameters
(g×cm−3 ) (cm×μl−1 ) (GPa) A/(GPa) B/(GPa) R1 R2 ω E/(GPa)
1.2 0.495 6.125 52.4 0.768 4.2 1.1 0.34 8.5

Table 3
Air and state equation parameters
Density/(g×cm−3 ) C0 C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 E/Gpa
1.29E-5 0 0 0 0 0.4 0.4 0 0.025

Where pd is the explosion pressure, F is the chem-
ical energy release rate of the explosive, D is the
detonation velocity of the explosive, t and t1 are the
current time and the detonation time of the point in the
explosive, A and Vc are the maximum cross-sectional
area and volume of the explosive, p is the pressure
generated by the explosive detonation drive, V is
the relative volume, E0 is the initial specific internal
energy, parameters A, B, R1 , R2 , and ω are constants
determined by the test.
According to reference [31], the parameters of the
explosive model material and the state equation are
shown in Table 2.
The air material model uses the model of
*MAT NULL in LS-DYNA and describes the
state equation of the air material model by
*EOS LINEAR POLYNOMIAL. Its state equation
is:
P = C0 + C1 + C22 + C32 + (C4 + C5 + C62 )E (17)
Where C0 , C1 , C2 , C3 , C4 , C5 and C6 are coeffi-
cients of the state equation, E is the initial internal
energy of the element.
The selected air material parameters are shown in
Table 3.
5. Numerical simulation and result analysis
When rock is subjected to blasting loads, the explo-
sion stress wave propagates in the form of a spherical
wave in the rock and decreases from the near area
of the explosion to the far area. Therefore, accord-
ing to the fragmentation effect of the rock, it can be
divided into crushed zone, fracture zone and elastic
zone. The propagation and coalescence process of
cracks between blast holes mainly occurs in the frac-
ture zone. The 10 models which blast holes spacing
(the distance from charge holes to the empty hole)
are 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 m
undergo pre-processing, solving and post-processing
in ANSYS/LS-DYNA. Using post-processing soft-
ware LS-PREPOST, the equivalent stress diagrams
of each model under different time and different blast
holes spacing are obtained.
5.1. Rock fragmentation and cracks propagation
analysis
Based on the blasting model with a 0.3 m blast
holes spacing, the initiation-propagation-coalescence
process of cracks between blast holes and the process
of explosion stress waves propagating to break rock
at different time are depicted, as shown in Fig. 2.
After explosive detonation, the detonation wave pro-
duces and immediately acts on the rock mass. Due
to the huge impact pressure, the rock mass around
the wall of charge blast holes is instantly crushed.
With the explosion stress wave propagates in the rock
mass, the small-scale rock mass near the charge blast
holes is gradually crushed, and the failure elements
of deleting on the equivalent stress diagrams reflect
this phenomenon. The explosion stress wave prop-
agates in the model in the form of an approximate
3142 H. Li et al. / Numerical simulation of the effect of empty hole between adjacent blast holes

Fig. 2. Equivalent stress diagrams at different time.

columnar wave, and the energy loss causes the
explosion stress wave decrease in the process of prop-
agation. However, the stress value is still greater than
the compressive strength of the rock, so the rock mass
is still dominated by compressive failure, so that the
range of elements that failure to withstand pressure
is constantly increase.
According to the equivalent stress diagram at the
time of 50 ␮s, it can be found that the zone of rock
fragmentation by compressive failure is about 3 times
the diameter of the blast holes before blasting, and
the rock damage in this range is mainly caused by
pressure, so the crushed zone is basically formed. The
explosion stress wave continues to spread with cracks
propagation. When it reaches 90 ␮s, it can be seen
from the equivalent stress diagram that the explo-
sion stress waves produced by the explosion of charge
holes 1 and 2 overlap each other at the empty hole 3.
And near the empty hole began to appear the failure
elements of deleting in the direction of the blast holes
connection. From the above theories, when the explo-
sion stress wave is overlapped at the empty hole, the
peak tensile stress near the empty hole in the direction
of the blast holes connection is greater than the tensile
 H. Li et al. / Numerical simulation of the effect of empty hole between adjacent blast holes
strength of the rock, so the rock mass damaged and
cracks appear. Then, under the action of the explosion
stress wave, cracks continue to propagate. And at this
time, the cracks propagation is not mainly caused by
compressive failure but mainly by tensile failure. At
the time of 120 ␮s, one crack between the blast holes
started to penetrate. With the passage of time, most
cracks between the blast holes achieved coalescence,
and only a few cracks propagated in an irregular
direction and did not achieve coalescence. With the
propagation of the explosion stress wave, the cracks in
the rock are gradually propagating. According to the
400, 600 and 800 ␮s equivalent stress diagrams, it can
be seen that the number of cracks and the degree of
cracks propagation in the direction of the blast holes
connection are significantly larger than the direction
perpendicular to the blast holes connection. And there
are two long cracks that gradually propagate with
time on the equivalent stress diagrams. The two long
cracks are perpendicular to the direction of the blast
holes connection and located approximately above or
below the empty hole. This is the result of the super-
position of the explosion stress wave near the vertical
bisector of the two charge holes. Through the above
analysis, these phenomena also verify that our under-
standing of the mechanism of empty hole is correct.
5.2. Effect of blast holes spacing on blasting
It is based on the equivalent stress diagrams at the
final moment with different blast holes spacing (In
order to facilitate observation and analysis, uniform
size cutting is applied to the equivalent stress dia-
grams. Only the crack part on the model is retained,
which does not affect the results analysis). As shown
in Fig. 3, when the blast holes spacing are 0.3, 0.4, 0.5
and 0.6 m, the effect of rock fragmentation near the
charge holes, the number of cracks and the situation
of cracks perforation are very good.
With the increase of the blast holes spacing, when
the blast holes spacing exceeds 0.6 m, the number of
cracks that can penetrate between the blast holes grad-
ually decreases. And near each charge hole will form
separate blasting zones. When the blast holes spacing
reaches 0.8 m, only one crack between the blast holes
can penetrate. From the equivalent stress diagrams of
the blast holes spacing more than 1.0 m, it can be seen
that the fragmentation effect of the rock mass near the
blast holes is obviously worse than the effect with
small blast holes spacing, and the number of cracks
and the effect of cracks propagation are gradually
3143
reduces. When the blast holes spacing is 1.2 m, the
cracks between the blast holes cannot be penetrated.
To sum up, although the rock fragmentation effect of
blasting is better when the blast holes spacing are 0.3
and 0.4 m, the contrast between the two can be found
that when the blast holes spacing is 0.3 m, the effect of
cracks propagation in all directions is roughly same.
At this time, the guiding effect of the empty hole on
cracks is not very obvious, and the role of the empty
hole is not been fully exerted. Meanwhile, under the
condition of satisfying the requirement of blasting
design, increasing the blast holes spacing can not only
save the explosive charge and reduce the cost, but
also reduce the number of blast holes and improve
work efficiency. Considering the numerical simula-
tion results and the theoretical analysis, it can be set
the blast holes spacing to 0.4∼0.6 m for parallel cut
blasting under this condition. At this time, the blasting
effect near the blast holes is better. For smooth blast-
ing, based on the effect of rock fragmentation near
the charge holes and the cracks coalescence between
the blast holes, it can be set the blast holes spacing to
0.8∼1.1 m. Because this model is a coupling charge,
it does not consider the uncoupled charge required for
smooth blasting to prevent damage to the blast holes
wall. Therefore, for smooth blasting, the selection of
blast holes spacing needs to be revised. However, this
study also has guiding significance for the selection
of smooth blasting parameters.
5.3. Pressure state analysis
The pressure state at a point in the rock during
blasting is also an important part of this research. By
analyzing the pressure of the rock at different loca-
tions near the empty hole, the effect of the blasting
loads on the rock mass can be fully analyzed. There-
fore, three elements with the same amount, number,
and location are selected on the above 10 models (The
element A is located at 5 cm above the empty hole,
the element B is located at 5 cm to the right of the
empty hole, the element C is located at 5 cm in the
direction of the upper right of the empty hole). The
time-history curves of elements pressure at different
blast holes spacing are shown in Fig. 4.
Analyzing the time-history curves of elements
pressure under these 10 models, it can be seen that
no matter how the blast holes spacing varies, the
time-history curves of pressure at elements A, B
and C have the same changing trend. That is, under
the action of blasting loads the pressure in the rock
3144 H. Li et al. / Numerical simulation of the effect of empty hole between adjacent blast holes

Fig. 3. Equivalent stress diagrams at the final moment with different blast holes spacing.

mass first increases rapidly. After reaching the peak of the blast holes spacing, the time for reaching
value, the pressure begins to decrease gradually and the peak pressure increases gradually, and the value
it finally tends to balance. However, with the increase of peak pressure gradually decreases. This is also
H. Li et al. / Numerical simulation of the effect of empty hole between adjacent blast holes 3145

Fig. 4. Time-history curves of elements pressure at different blast holes spacing.

3146 H. Li et al. / Numerical simulation of the effect of empty hole between adjacent blast holes
the inevitable result of propagation and reduction of
explosion stress wave in rock mass. And the simula-
tion results are consistent with the theoretical analysis
of the variation law of the stress near the empty
hole. As can be seen from Fig. 4 that although the
blast holes spacing is changed, in each model the
element B always reaches peak pressure first. Then
the element C reaches peak pressure. The element
A reaches peak pressure at the end. Therefore, it
can be considered that the propagation of pressure
is anisotropic in the rock. The pressure propagates
fastest in horizontal direction (the direction of the
blast holes connection), followed by the angle of 45◦
with the horizontal direction and in vertical direc-
tion (the direction perpendicular to the blast holes
connection) is the slowest. From the whole point of
view, the peak pressure at element A is always greater
than elements B and C, while the peak pressure at
elements B and C do not have an apparent magni-
tude. However, it can be affirmed that the maximum
pressure near the empty hole occurs above the empty
hole, that is, perpendicular to the direction of the
blast holes connection. Further analysis found that
although the blast holes spacing has changed, the
time for the pressure to increase from 0 to the peak
pressure and then decrease to 0 is about the same.
However, the peak pressure gradually decreases as
the blast holes spacing increases. Therefore, as the
blast holes spacing increases the pressure change rate
gradually decreases.
6. Conclusion
Through the numerical simulation of the process of
the double blast holes-coupled charge blasting with
one empty hole and the analysis of mechanism of the
empty hole, the following conclusions are obtained:
(1) Using the dynamic finite element analysis soft-
ware ANSYS/LS-DYNA to demonstrate the
guiding effect of the empty hole in the pro-
cess of cracks propagation and coalescence
between the empty hole and the charge holes
under different blast holes spacing. Through
theoretical and numerical simulation analysis,
it is found that under the action of blasting
loads, the initial cracks are first appeared near
the wall of the charge holes. Then it further
propagated under the combined action of the
explosion stress wave and the explosion gas.
The double charge holes detonated at the same
time, the explosion stress wave is superim-
posed at the empty hole and cracks will appear
in the direction of the blast holes connection
near the empty hole. Due to the guiding effect
of the empty hole, the cracks propagation effect
in the direction of the blast holes connection is
better.
(2) Through numerical simulation results and the-
oretical analysis found that: The effects of
rock fragmentation and cracks propagation and
coalescence are different under different blast
holes spacing. If the blast holes spacing is
small, the cracks will be dense, the extension
range will be small and the rock fragmentation
degree will be high; If the blast holes spacing
is large, the cracks will be sparse, the extension
range will be large and the rock fragmentation
degree will be low. Under these conditions of
parameters selected when the blast holes spac-
ing reaches 1.2 m, cracks between the blast
holes cannot be penetrated. For parallel cut
blasting, the blast holes spacing is set to be
0.4∼0.6 m more reasonable. And the effect of
rock fragmentation near the charge holes and
the effect of cracks propagation and coales-
cence between blast holes are good.
(3) Under the action of blasting loads, the pressure
state of each element in different directions
near the empty hole is different. As a whole,
with the increase of the blast holes spacing,
the time for each element to reach the peak
pressure increases gradually. The value of the
peak pressure gradually decreases and the rate
of pressure change also gradually decreases.
From the local point of view, no matter how
the blast holes spacing changes, the elements
pressure in all directions near the empty hole
is first rapidly increased to the peak pressure,
and then gradually reduces. At the same dis-
tance near the empty hole, in vertical direction
the peak pressure is the largest and the pressure
propagation velocity is the slowest, in horizon-
tal direction the pressure propagation velocity
is the fastest.
(4) In this paper, the internal mechanism and
action process of the empty hole between
adjacent holes in the process of blasting are
analyzed. It is intended to provide reference
for the arrangement of empty hole in parallel
cut blasting. However, the cut blasting method
adopted in chamber excavation is affected by
the rock mechanics, section size, section shape,
 H. Li et al. / Numerical simulation of the effect of empty hole between adjacent blast holes
excavation method and other factors. There-
fore, the method of cut blasting is diversified
and whether to use the empty hole or not is
also related to the above factors. Thus, the
conclusions of this paper have limitations in
application and should be determined accord-
ing to the actual situation in engineering.
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (51874189, 51709161),
Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation
China (ZR2017MEE043), the Visiting Scholar Fund
of Shandong University of Science and Tech-
nology, the Project of Shandong University of
Science and Technology Graduate Innovation Fund
(SDKDYC180324). The financial supports are grate-
fully acknowledged.
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