Methods of granular and fragmented material packing density calculation

This paper is the first in the series devoted to the problems of granular and fragmented material package density calculation. It considers the theory of the calculation of loosening for materials consisting of irregular shape particles. Two new methods for the density calculation of unlimited volume granular materials are offered: a crude method based on the empirical relation between density and the index (worked out by the author) of the uniform distribution of particles in individual fractions; the other method, a more precise one, allows for the consideration of fraction mixture quality. On this basis, problems pertaining to the calculation of granular and fragmented material package density, in containers of various shapes and dimensions, to dilatancy packing or loosening of such media, blasted rock density computation and methods of overburden blasting, are discussed. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.