Research progress of the fundamental theory and technology of rock blasting

Investigating rock fragmentation mechanisms under blasting and developing new blasting technologies are important and challenging directions for blast engineering. Recently, with the development of experimental techniques, the fundamental theory of rock blasting has been extensively studied in the past few decades and has made important achievements in the full understanding of the rock fracturing process under blast loading. It is thus imperative to systematically review the progress in this direction. This paper mainly focuses on the experimental study of rock blasting, including the distribution characteristic of blast energy, evolution of the blast stress field, propagation mechanism of cracks, interaction mechanism between blast waves and cracks, and influence of geostatic stress on rock fragmentation. In addition, some newly developed blasting technologies and their applications are briefly presented. This review could provide comprehensive insights to guide the study on the rock fracturing mechanism under blasting and further provide meaningful guidance for optimizing blast parameters in engineering.