Controlled detonations or “blasts” represent a key and recurrent activity during the performance of certain relevant economic activities, mainly in the mining, mining, construction and building demolition industries.
However, the intrinsic need to frequently implement this activity to meet production objectives involves a set of important environmental constraints for an operator. The generation of Particulate Matter clouds, and their subsequent evolution over surrounding areas, makes blasting activity subject to an exhaustive environmental control.
Blasting environmental management requirements
Considering the current commitment to reduce industrial emissions, the requirements to minimize the environmental impacts related to blasting activity forces to apply an intensive activity control and monitoring from planning to after execution phases.
Since it is an activity that generates a residual atmospheric component, local meteorological conditions at the time of detonation become a key element that defines the transport and dispersion of blast clouds. Some evidences determine that unfavorable weather conditions for blast dispersion can lead to local air pollution events. A recurrence of air pollution episodes can subsequently turn into environmental conflicts over nearby location leading to plant operational performance restrictions and/or stand-by penalties.
Considering this relevant external vulnerability that affects sensitive operations, a previous blasting scheduling and subsequent impact analysis is becoming a more recurrent procedure along the sector.
Blast Planning Tools
Technological advances in the field of numerical modeling systems using high performance computing opens an interesting range of possibilities for future programmed blasting activity impact analysis and assessment. Efficient model computing enables the simulation of atmospheric dispersion models that can determine the plume evolution of a blast in just a few seconds, when, historically, these processes could take several hours or even days.
This significant technological advance enables an operator to start planning multiple blasting scenarios within a very short term while considering the local atmospheric conditions to which the process will be exposed. Thus, operators can identify feasible “operational windows” in the next hours ahead that meet favorable atmospheric conditions to minimize potential atmospheric impacts related to blasting activities.
METEOSIM develops advanced simulation solutions that contribute to real time and future atmospheric impacts induced by blasting activities over different industrial sectors sensitive to weather conditions.
