QUARRY SIMULATION

Nitinkumar Kademani
PG190631

The segment ‘quarry simulation’ focuses on simulating a blast on the present conditions of the basalt quarry. This process aims at studying the newly formed topology in the blast region. Further, spatial systems are studied from the plans and sections that are extracted across the blast site. Blender and Rhinoceros-3D are used in simulating and documenting the blast. 

SIMULATING THE BLAST

 1. The simulation process starts from modelling a closed and solid mesh of the basalt quarry site. The necessary data is derived from the contour map of the specific geolocation. 
2. The site mesh is then split into two, to focus the study on the higher altitude region in the location.
3. With the help of the ‘Cell Fracture’ tool in Blender, the study area is fractured into ‘Voronoi’ cells. The fracture is determined by the number of cells, scale, and noise factor. In the beginning, the cell number is raised to 1000, with a uniform of scale of 1 across the three axes and a noise factor of 0.3. 
4. A set of cells are isolated from the site. The cells that are on the highest altitude range are selected to simulate the blast. The entire list is then turned to a passive rigid body dynamic. 
5. With the peripheral cells intact, the remaining cells are further fractured by 600 units with a noise factor of 0.3, and a uniform scale of 1.
6. Further, the new list of fractured cells are isolated. The ones towards the outside are converted into an active rigid body dynamic. This means that this set of cells will react to any external force, including gravity. A blast is triggered by a weight of 5000units from above the cells. On impact the cells explode and disintegrate from its parent group.
7. The passive cells remain intact and are left behind with a noise on the surface due to the blast.
8. Now the blast is simulated with the periphery cells placed around the active cells. The passive cells do not react to any force but merely act as a hard surface unmoved by any force.
9. The blast leaves behind a niche in the list of periphery cells. The surfaces on the niche are more fractured and noisy after the impact.

10. The blast is then simulated in the context of the study region on site. 
11. Here the niche is visualized in the larger context of the site as it appears.
12. The blast is then simulated in the context of the study region on site. 
13. Here the niche is visualized in the larger context of the site as it appears.
 The following images present the before and after blast-stages on the site. The newly blasted cellular region is later re-topologized for optimal mesh configuration, This is done to visualize the study region as a non-cellular coherent mesh. 

SPATIAL SYSTEMS

The following drawings study the blast site through a series of plans cut at regular intervals of 3 meters. The resulting number of contours are 12. The drawings also highlight the intersection of the regions before and after the blast; the relevant surface areas are mentioned along. The least occupiable surface available is 20sqm, and the most available area is ~464sqm.

The panel on the left presents the entire list of plans extracted as part of the study. The plans in detail are viewed to further understand the changing profiles of the blast surface.

The next set of drawings observes a series of sections cut across the blast region. Thus, 15 sections are extracted at 3meter intervals. The deepest surface available after the blast  is ~21.45meter, as measured from the older contour a volume  of ~9659m3 is estimated to have been carved out of the site after the blast.

The panel on the left presents the entire list of sections extracted during the study. The changing profile of the blasted surface is visualized through enlarged drawings of the same on the right panels.

  • Sections across the blast region.
Visualization of the newly blast quarry

This speculative study serves the purpose of understanding the blast that occurs in the basalt quarry. The simulation process also allows to read the difference in surfaces, between the older, weathered and smoothened profiles to the newly formed noisy and jagged edged ones. Thus, both the conditions are visualized simultaneously in the series.