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Observation of Rockfall in the Thermal Infrared



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  • Personal Author:
  • Description:
    Rockfalls pose a significant risk to personnel and equipment in open pit mines, yet there is currently no widely adopted tool for the detection and real-time monitoring of these hazards. This paper explores the use of thermal infrared cameras to observe, detect, and record rockfall events in surface mining operations, with the aim of protecting mine workers from the dangers of rockfalls. The primary objective is to determine the effectiveness of thermal cameras in detecting rockfalls in a range of environmental conditions. A mobile monitoring platform (MMP) was developed and equipped with a variety of long-wave infrared (LWIR) thermal imaging systems, including both scientific and security-grade cameras. Data have since been collected from nine open pit mining operations across the western United States and southern British Columbia, Canada. Six thermal cameras have been deployed and determined effective in detecting rockfall across a temperature range from - 27 degrees C to 52 degrees C. Research findings confirm the utility of thermal infrared imagers in rockfall detection throughout the diurnal cycle (24 h/day), enhancing situational awareness for miners and the potential for integration into geotechnical slope monitoring systems. It was also observed that falling blocks smaller than camera pixel resolution can be detected from thermal video due to temperature/emissivity changes resulting from scours, craters, and dust plumes made by the blocks as they descended slopes. This paper demonstrates LWIR thermal cameras' practical applications and limitations for rockfall detection in various geologic and climate conditions, provides recommendations for collecting and analyzing rockfall-related thermal imaging data, and outlines a path forward for the development of rockfall detection algorithms. [Description provided by NIOSH]
  • Subjects:
  • Keywords:
  • ISSN:
    0723-2632
  • Document Type:
    Text
  • Funding:
    Contract
  • Genre:
    Journal Article
  • Place as Subject:
  • CIO:
    National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
  • Topic:
    Workplace Safety & Health
  • Location:
    North America
  • NIOSHTIC Number:
    nn:20070540
  • Citation:
    Rock Mech Rock Eng 2024 Dec; :[Epub ahead of print]
  • Email:
    ecwellman@arizona.edu
  • Federal Fiscal Year:
    2025
  • Peer Reviewed:
    True
  • Source Full Name:
    Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering
  • Collection(s):
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha-512:d20b3d90dd4991d50a116d4a3a0a57afeaa6f0d77e74bf01c9e3c2c9e425bff612e58aa5a4ae13e9a1cc9f08c38406896a37f45b18e06c05e880accbd0998e57
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 2.76 MB ]
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