Both room-and-pillar and longwall mining systems develop underground excavations whose stability must be ensured over their entire service life. Even though rock bolts have been extensively used as a support element i...Both room-and-pillar and longwall mining systems develop underground excavations whose stability must be ensured over their entire service life. Even though rock bolts have been extensively used as a support element in US coal mines for about 40 years, limited research has been conducted in quantifying its composite reinforcement effects. Recently, the authors suggested an approach to quantify the reinforcement effect of roof supports over a designated area based on critical failure strains in tension, compression and shear. This paper validates the critical strain technique(CST) using a case study and justifies the magnitude of selected critical strain by corroborating with the US roof fall statistics. Intersections are vulnerable to failure due to the larger exposed roof span and associated stress concentrations. Through numerical application of the CST to a case study, it was demonstrated that modifying the opening orientation and installing reinforcement at critical locations can help to improve the overall stability of intersections.展开更多
Higher production, better safety standard, and potential for automation are some of the benefits of longwall mining. Today, longwall face advances at a faster rate exposing many diversified rock layers in a short peri...Higher production, better safety standard, and potential for automation are some of the benefits of longwall mining. Today, longwall face advances at a faster rate exposing many diversified rock layers in a short period of time. It is now a serious challenge to cope with ground control problems such as roof falls, face and floor failure, and excessive shield loading as fast as possible to minimize production and monetary losses. In Illinois Coal Mines, the existence of weak floor strata blow the coal seam may pose additional problems related to floor heaving, shield base punching, and associated roof and face falls. In this study, the effects of weak floor on longwall ground control are analyzed using two dimensional finite element models. A two leg 635 6 ton (700 short ton) yielding capacity shield is included in the models to evaluate the effects of different thickness and material properties of the weak floor. The study indicates that the thickness and material properties of weak floor have significant effects on shield loading, the distribution and intensity of front abutment stress, failure zones in the surrounding strata, roof to floor convergence, and floor punching by the shield base.展开更多
文摘Both room-and-pillar and longwall mining systems develop underground excavations whose stability must be ensured over their entire service life. Even though rock bolts have been extensively used as a support element in US coal mines for about 40 years, limited research has been conducted in quantifying its composite reinforcement effects. Recently, the authors suggested an approach to quantify the reinforcement effect of roof supports over a designated area based on critical failure strains in tension, compression and shear. This paper validates the critical strain technique(CST) using a case study and justifies the magnitude of selected critical strain by corroborating with the US roof fall statistics. Intersections are vulnerable to failure due to the larger exposed roof span and associated stress concentrations. Through numerical application of the CST to a case study, it was demonstrated that modifying the opening orientation and installing reinforcement at critical locations can help to improve the overall stability of intersections.
文摘Higher production, better safety standard, and potential for automation are some of the benefits of longwall mining. Today, longwall face advances at a faster rate exposing many diversified rock layers in a short period of time. It is now a serious challenge to cope with ground control problems such as roof falls, face and floor failure, and excessive shield loading as fast as possible to minimize production and monetary losses. In Illinois Coal Mines, the existence of weak floor strata blow the coal seam may pose additional problems related to floor heaving, shield base punching, and associated roof and face falls. In this study, the effects of weak floor on longwall ground control are analyzed using two dimensional finite element models. A two leg 635 6 ton (700 short ton) yielding capacity shield is included in the models to evaluate the effects of different thickness and material properties of the weak floor. The study indicates that the thickness and material properties of weak floor have significant effects on shield loading, the distribution and intensity of front abutment stress, failure zones in the surrounding strata, roof to floor convergence, and floor punching by the shield base.
