Influence of the elevation effect of slope blasting on the vibration velocity of existing buried steel pipes

Blasting vibration(BV) may cause the instability and damage to the surrounding structures and infrastructures, even leading to serious accident. As far as slope blasting is concerned, more and more attention has been paid to the elevation effect of BV of rock mass. However, scarce information is available on the influence of the elevation effect of slope blasting on the BV of surrounding structures, especially the existing buried pipes. As a consequence, the influence of the elevation effect of slope blasting on the BV of steel pipes was numerically investigated according to finite element model, which was verified against the experimental result. Moreover, the formula is presented to predict the peak vibration velocity (PVV) of steel pipes under slope blasting. It is found that PVV of the steel pipes has the elevation amplification effect in the terrain with positive or negative elevation difference. PVV of the pipes in the terrain with positive elevation difference is greater than that in the terrain with the same negative elevation difference. The elevation effect is more obvious under the condition of the positive elevation difference (2.1-5.1 m). The modified Sadovsky's empirical formula is more suitable to predict PVV of the buried steel pipes during the slope blasting process.