Quarry Blasts Assessment and Their Environmental Impacts on the Nearby Oil Pipelines

Abstract

Ground vibrations induced by blasting in the cement quarries are one of the fundamental problems in the quarrying industry and may cause severe damage to the nearby utilities and pipelines. This research paper presents the results of ground vibration measurements induced by blasting at the National Cement Company (NCC) southeast of Helwan city, Egypt. The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of the quarry blasts on the oil pipelines of SUMED Company. The seismic refraction for compressional waves and the shear wave velocity obtained from the Multi channel Analysis of Surface Waves (MASW) are used to evaluate the closest site of the two pipelines to the quarry blasts. The results demonstrate that, the closest site of the two pipelines is of class B, according to the International Building Code (IBC) and the safe distance to avoid any environmental effects is 650 m, following the deduced Peak Particle Velocity (PPV) and Scaled Distance (SD) relationship (PPV = 440.64 × SD-1.225) in mm/s and the Air over Pressure (Air Blast) formula (Air Blast = 152.87 × SD-0.071) in dB. In the light of the prediction analysis.