Report of Investigations 8896: Effects of Repeated Blasting on a Wood-Frame House

Details

• Personal Author:
  Dowding, Charles H. ; Siskind, David E. ; Stagg, Mark S. ; Stevens, Michael G.
• Corporate Authors:
  United States. Bureau of Mines
• Description:
  The Bureau of Mines arranged to have a wood-frame test house built in the path of an advancing surface coal mine so it could investigate the effects of repeated blasting on a residential house. Structural fatigue and damage were assessed over a 2-yr period. The house was subjected to vibrations from 587 production blasts with particle velocities that ranged from 0.10 to 6.94 in/s. Later, the entire house was shaken mechanically to produce fatigue cracking. Failure strain characteristics of construction materials were evaluated as a basis for comparing strains induced by blasting and shaker loading to those induced by weather and household activities. Cosmetic or hairline cracks 0.01 to 0.10 mm wide occurred during construction of the house and also during periods when no blasts were detonated. The formation of cosmetic cracks increased from 0.3 to 1.0 crack per week when ground motions exceeded 1.0 in/s. Human activity and changes in temperature and humidity caused strains in walls that were equivalent to those produced by ground motions up to 1.2 in/s. When the entire structure was mechanically shaken, the first crack appeared after 56,000 cycles, the equivalent of 28 yr of shaking by blast-generated ground motions of 0.5 in/s twice a day. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Coal Coal Mining Explosions Mining Occupational Health Safety Vibration
• Keywords:
  Blast-effects Coal-mining Explosion-damage Fatigue-tests Field-tests Mining-industry Structural-analysis Surface-mining Vibration-effects Wooden-structures
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• Subseries:
  Report of Investigations
• ISSN:
  1066-5552 (print)
• Publisher:
  United States. Bureau of Mines
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Case Report
• Place as Subject:
  Minnesota ; OSHA Region 5
• Rights:
  Public Domain
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  TCRC - Twin Cities Research Center
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  90 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:10004013
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB85-110443
• Citation:
  Minneapolis, MN: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, RI 8896, 1984 Jan; :1-82
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1984
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Minneapolis, MN: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, RI 8896
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:5a14a31f6388bc7c4c54ab853f82896d765f54cca3571ff833b447ca87b385c8c3e3b56761edaad074da1c45e65d271cd30e0cd8bd0e1fa6770f50c315b30d60
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/201767/cdc_201767_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 5.11 MB ]