Numerical Simulation of the Relationship between the width of Destressed Zone and Blasthole Depth

Overstress in the surrounding rock of the roadway is a key reason that causes failures of deep roadways. Destressing blasting is one of the promising techniques that could improve the supporting quality. If the depth of the pressure relief blast hole is too shallow, the surrounding rock of the roadway will be broken or even collapsed. If the pressure relief blast hole is too deep, the pressure relief area will be located in the deep part of the surrounding rock of the roadway, which cannot achieve the purpose of releasing the stress in the shallow part of the surrounding rock and cause waste of the blast hole. The width or range of the pressure relief area should just fall in the high stress area of the surrounding rock of the roadway, so the pressure relief blast hole should have a reasonable depth. In order to quantitatively describe the relationship between borehole depth and the width of the stress relief zone, numerical simulations were carried out in ANSYS according to different borehole depths. The results show that the optimal destressing effect is achieved when borehole depth is 4 m. Peak stress of  and  is significantly reduced by 30.51% and 49.07% after blasting. Meanwhile, the high-stress area shifts about 4.8 m from the roadside to the depth of surrounding rock, thus a 3.8 m wide stress relief zone is formed around the roadside, thus, the aim of quantizing the effects of destress blasting is achieved.