I have completed a Master of Engineering in Mining Engineering. I am currently exploring the possibility of pursuing a Ph.D. in the same domain in early 2022 or 2023.
My areas of interest are the following:
- Rock mechanics and ground control
- Backfilling the mined-out area
- Gemstones and their processing
- Open-pit optimization
Any other suggestion beyond this abovementioned is also welcome.
Thank you.
Dear Ntigurirwa: If I may suggest, I would choose something related to tailings and mine wastes. Tailing ponds slope stability and tailing piles slope stability methods, besides methods of improvement of their stability are topics of interest to many mines. In addition minimization of wastes is another area that deserves attention and is key to any mine development. In this last case developing mine processes that will reduce or eliminate waste generation, and mine wastes recycling may gear attention of many mine groups and, who knows, provide funds for research. I suggest you concentrate your research efforts in these topics and find a case to study. Look for key researchers jn these areas and contact them to see if they can be your advisor in your Ph.D. Probably they will have room for a Ph.D. student to help them develop their research. Good luck
Drill and Blast optimisation using both bottom (saver plugs) and top (Blast bag) decking.
The benefits of the usage can be among the following but not limited to only those ones:
1. Good fragmentation
2. Both ground vibration and over airpressure reduction due to the reduction in the explosives charge per hole.
3. Reduction in the explosive usage and as result reduction in its cost
4. Good floor and high productivity
5. Consistent final stemming height
Jean DAMASCENE Ntigurirwa You can consider topics related to slope stability, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in blast optimization, and drilling optimization.
See this topic as an option: "Blasting optimization using stemming adjustment, primer positioning, and Artificial Neural Network models"
Good suggestions by Vincent Amudiok . Our recent study with my patented stemming plug, i-STEM, found that blasting frequency increases with a combination of air-decking and stemming plug. This is a big advantage as lower frequencies are more harmful. We could save 40% cost of explosives and drilling and still improved fragmentation by 50%.
Very true i am even work on a project that the decking could be two that is both the bottom and two top decking and i believe when completed the explosives savings will be around 45 - 50% and this means possible Environmental related issues will be significantly reduce to the minimum but the main challenge will be the quality of the QAQC. If it is done properly i am sure of good and productive blast but if not the two main problems will toes (an even floor) after the last flitch and over-size at the top flitch.
@Jean DAMASCENE, I think you can focus on several topics in rock mechanics and engineering, particularly in Slope Stability, Tunneling, Rock Support Systems, among other. I will also advice that you incorporate the use of Artificial Intelligence in your project.
Dear Jean,
Application of AI techniques, numerical and analytical methods for the investigation of discontinuous rock structural stability can be polite.
There are several papers that can be helpful:
Chapter Key-Block Theorem Application on Discontinuous Rock Slope In...
Article Key-block based analytical stability method for discontinuou...
Article Application of the modified Q-slope classification system fo...
Article Correlations of SMR-Qslope Data in Stability Classification ...
Article Discontinuous rock slope stability analysis under blocky str...
Best regards,
Dear Jean,
Studying low and high frequency ground vibration induced by blasting and the methodology to change a low frequency vibration to a high frequency vibration can be a very relevant and untouched subject.
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