A numerical method for estimating blast-induced vibration using particle velocity measurement

Conventional numerical methods used to predict blast-induced vibration mostly adopt pressure curves estimated by theoretical or semi-empirical equations as an input parameter for detonation source. These equations, however, have shortcomings in determination of the detonation pressure which is one of the most important input parameters for numerical analysis, because they assume ideal explosion conditions to estimate explosion energy and the calculated pressure curve has little or no information about the propagating medium. In this study, therefore, we suggested a numerical technique which uses velocity waveform obtained from a test blast as an input parameter instead of pressure curve. A series of correction procedure was performed to estimate the particle velocity waveform at the source of explosion. The results from the developed method showed a good agreement with the measured vibration data from the test blast. By comparing the results from the simulation technique developed in this study with those from the conventional ones using pressure curves, it is concluded that the developed method is more adequate for predicting blast-induced vibration. This is because the estimated velocity waveform of the blast source reflects characteristics of the propagating ground more accurately and the simulation results using such input well fit the measured data.