Estimation of Specific Drilling in Small Tunnel by Using SVM

Drilling and Blasting method is the controlled use of explosives to break rocks for excavation. It is practiced most often in mining and civil engineering. Basically short tunnels are usually constructed by drilling and blasting method. The value of specific drilling in tunnel blasting processes considerably affects the efficiency of the blasting. Specific drilling affects costs of drilling and blasting, specific charge, fragmentation size, muck pile shape, over break profile shape. In this paper, we present an application of Support Vector Machine (SVM) to the calculation of the specific drilling for small size tunnel blasting. Certain small size tunnel blast tests in four case studies have been used to present the SVM-based model. Among available existing parameters in the literature, some of the most influencing parameters are selected. These models are based on seismic wave velocity (P-wave), Rock Quality Designation (RQD), coupling ratio of explosive charge, maximum depth of blast hole and tunnel area. Evaluation of the numerical measures of the goodness of the statistical fit clearly indicated that corresponding SVM model is more acceptable than multiple linear regression model for estimating specific drilling.