Variability in velocity of detonation of commercial explosives as measured in field trials

The velocity of detonation (VOD) is one of the most important properties of explosives. It is essential that the explosive in the field condition detonates at its optimum rate and induces sufficient detonation pressure leading to good fragmentation. As the explosive pressure is directly proportional to the VOD of an explosive, VOD measurements indicate the performance of explosive in real time. Experiments were conducted to measure VOD in blastholes in order to understand the effect of primer quantity, contamination, hydrostatic pressure, aluminium percentage, water, sleep time, hole diameter and stemming length on VOD. The experiments were conducted in opencast coal mines and limestone quarries using resistance wire continuous VOD measurement systems.