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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Digital imaging techniques for blasting process evaluation in field

Conference ·
OSTI ID:398379
 [1]
  1. ICI Explosives Canada Inc., North York, Ontario (Canada)
Direct visualization of rock movement during blasting is an important key to understanding the blasting process, as well as optimizing blast designs and explosives performance. To achieve this, a digital camera system (HSIS-500) has been built. It is a custom made high speed solid-state camera employing an advanced charge coupled device (CCD) and dynamic random access memory (DRAM) technologies. It handles like a regular video camera but requires no film or tape as the image is recorded in digital form on memory chips and transferred to the system hard disk for storage. The system consists of two components: the camera body and hardware, and the image processing unit. The imaging rate is sized at 425 frames/s; it can also be used in the single frame mode. The recording duration can be set at 5, 10, 15 and 20 seconds. The camera can be triggered manually or by wireless remote control, and is capable of recording transient images in extremely low lights. The captured images can be displayed immediately on a video screen or a computer monitor. The system image analysis software can be run in the field for a quick preview. The full features of the software allows the detailed motion digitization in Windows {trademark} for obtaining target displacement as well as velocity. The system has been in use for over a year in several mines and quarries under extreme weather conditions ({minus}20 C to +43 C). The paper describes the basic principles and features of the digital imaging system, and its actual use in blast diagnostics and optimization, and in modelling of the blasting process.
OSTI ID:
398379
Report Number(s):
CONF-960234--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English