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By M. Karmis

Underground mining will disturb the natural equilibrium of the rock mass, causing significant stress redistributions in the vicinity of the excavation with corresponding horizontal and vertical displacements. Subsidence of the ground occurs when these displacements propagate from the mine opening, through the overlying strata, to the surface. Such ground movements may take either of two general forms: a sudden and sometimes violent collapse, or a more gradual and progressive ground movement. The former, characterized by localized failure of roof or pillar in old, shallow room and pillar workings, is rather unpredictable and difficult to analyze. As a result, most control measures are directed toward the latter type of movement, which is associated with the fracture and flow of the strata overlying longwall and high-extraction room and pillar systems, resulting in horizontal and vertical strains in the affected area. Such ground movements can often cause considerable surface disturbances ranging from simple land settlement to severe structural damage. Due to the increasing incidence of this phenomenon in more populated areas and the rising awareness of the problem, it has become necessary to establish a balance between the development of mineral resources and the protection of the environment and society. This paper presents a summary of the major findings derived from a substantial research effort on mining subsidence carried out, during the past few years, in the southern Appalachian coalfield. The research program encompassed the following major tasks: identification of the most significant factor influencing ground movements above mined openings, collection of subsidence case studies for the southern Appalachian coalfield, development of subsidence and strain prediction techniques for that region and initiation of a subsidence monitoring program in southwestern Virginia.

Jan 1, 1984

By Zhang Liandong

Roof control in thick-seam mining has long been a difficult problem in mine design and coal mining. In the early 1980's, through ground control instrumentation and investigation the rules of roof strata movement were determined, based on which the sliding roof bar powered support was properly designed and successfully applied to roof control to thick seam mining with caving. Underground trials in Huating Coal Mine produced satisfying results. The technique is being employed in many Chinese coal mines and won the national price for technical advance.

Jan 1, 1990

By Martin Bolesta

The use of strata injection as a means of stabilizing brittle and heavily stressed ground as well as faulted zones is now state-of-the art technology. Users are obliged to select the right combination from a wide range of injection products and equipment in order to ensure that the operation will be a success. Laboratory tests and a fundamental understanding of the technical aspects of injection products not only help in drawing up the correct injection procedure but have in fact become indispensable for planning the most reliable and cost-effective solution.

Jan 1, 2001

By Timothy Batchler

"Standing roof supports help to provide a stable working environment in coal mine gateroads. NIOSH participates in the development of these support systems by conducting full-scale tests in their Mine Roof Simulator. These tests have established the performance characteristics of every coal mine support system currently in use in the United States. Through these tests, mine operators and regulatory officials have acquired a fundamental understanding of the various types of support performance that guides the assessment and use of these support systems. However, some little known factors that influence support behavior can lead to misconceptions and, perhaps, a poor assessment of support behavior at times. This paper highlights several of these factors and discusses their significance. The paper also examines a current longwall tailgate support and discusses the inefficiency with this approach. Finally, the NIOSH Mine Roof Simulator (MRS) is the world’s most powerful load frame built specifically to test full-scale roof supports, including longwall shields. are addressed in this paper to provide a more in-depth assessment of the limitations of the MRS and what the MRS testing protocol is designed to do. INTRODUCTION Over the years, considerable research has been conducted to develop standing support technologies and to evaluate their performance characteristics. The load and displacement characteristics of the standing supports have been determined from full-scale testing conducted using the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Mine Roof Simulator (MRS) (Barczak and Tadolini, 2008) located in Bruceton, PA. Performance traits, installation patterns, and ground responses are observed in various geological and mining conditions and are evaluated to determine the support performance in the field (Dolinar, 2010; Campoli, 2015; Zhang et al., 2012). Despite widespread use of standing supports, not every aspect of their performance and resulting ground support capability are always well understood. This paper discusses 10 factors, several of which are surprising, that impact standing support performance."

Jan 1, 2017

By Jon Bowler

Daw Mill Colliery, UK Coal, near Coventry in England, mines the Warwickshire Thick Seam at 800 m/2500 ft depth using longwall retreat with gateroads supported by rockbolts. Over the last eight years the mine has worked longer and wider panels with extraction heights of over 5 m. Recently the mine has experienced high deformation conditions principally from the rib sides resulting in operational issues and production delays. Investigation of rib deformation was undertaken using new inspection and measurement techniques, including systematic laser surveying, and improved rib support consumables were developed and introduced. A new rib trussing system using textile webbing has proved very successful.. A rib support management system was also developed and introduced for face retreat. This allowed rib support to be more effectively managed both for production and safety. For the current developments, new 28-mm-diameter roof and rib bolt systems have been introduced and rib bolt length has been increased to 3 m, with the aim of achieving gateroad stability over the life of the panel. Significant reductions in roof and rib deformation have been confirmed by the latest monitoring results. These ground control innovations are allowing Daw Mill?s potential to be realised. Production from 302?s face in 2008 set new UK and European records. However the support enhancement process continues and further innovations are planned.

Jan 1, 2009

By Rocky Wu

Rock bursts are one of the greatest challenges to ground control in the mining industry. With increasing mining depth and mining scale, there are more and more industry requirements on yielding rock support. Since 2008, Jennmar has been conducting large scale research and development works to develop a technically reliable and cost-effective yielding rock bolt. This paper introduces a new yielding rock support: the Yield-Lok bolt. The bolt is characterized by the designed yielding ability to produce 150?250 mm (6?10 in) of deflection at 8?10 metric tons (MT) (7.9?9.8 t) loads for every 16.4kJ (12,096 ft lb) energy input. The bolt?s performance characteristics are consistent through multiple and varying amplitude of impacts. In this paper, the design criteria of the bolt and the principle of performance are described; the dynamic testing results are discussed; and the features and application of the bolt are presented.

Jan 1, 2011

By David C. Laurence

in March 1999, the School of Mining Engineering at the University of New South Wales carried out a series of underground trials using " Evermine", a South African developed two-part water based polymer membrane. The aim of the trials was to determine the potential of a spray-on polymer membrane such as Evermine as an alternative to conventional rib support systems The mine selected was Angus Place colliery, reputed to have some of the worst ground conditions of any Australian underground coal mine. Ribs at Angus Place are supported by conventional pattern bolting supplemented by wire mesh. The trials indicate that there is significant potential for the introduction of polymer membranes into the underground coal minim; industry Initial results indicated that ribs that had been sprayed exhibited less displacement and spalling than unsprayed ribs. particularly when subjected to abutment loads from an approaching long-wall Further research will he required to conclusively rate the performance of Evermine in comparison to other products in the market and the long term performance of the product

Jan 1, 2000

By C. D. Peters

The Bureau of Mines has been researching remote sensing analysis of an underground coal mining area in Utah and computer-aided methods of defining ground control hazards in this mining area. As a result of these studies, a preliminary potential hazards map was developed for the test site. This map is based primarily upon a lineament (linear feature) analysis of Landsat satellite data. Other data used were paleochannel location data, resistivity data, and information from surface and underground field checking of the lineaments and ground control problems in the mine. Lineaments proved to be reliable indicators of hazardous areas, although the type and degree of hazard varies with different lineament trends and the presence of other conditions such as lineament intersections and intersections with other geologic structures or with paleochannels. Lineaments were observed to match faults, joints, and/or joint trends in the area. The paleochannel data, derived from drill hole data, provided basic information about potentially hazardous areas in the mine by suggesting where paleochannels could cause instability in the roof rock. The ground control problem data served largely to define the relative degree of hazard associated with lineaments and the types of hazards encountered in the mine. Resistivity data helped confirm the presence of fractures where they were expected to occur both from surface geology and from the lineament data.

Jan 1, 1986

By Axel Preusse

In the Ruhr district, pipelines of public and private infrastructure are made of cast iron, steel, plastics or asbestos cement. Legal framework, technical regulations and normative standards define which pipeline materials may be used for the transmission of which kind of product Thus ground water endangering substances as well as inflammable or explosive products are only permitted to be transported in steel-made pipelines. Ground movements, due to underground mining, are transmitted via the soil to the pipeline and cause extra strain within the steel pipeline (Figure I). In extreme cases durable deformations may occur, characterized by an oval profile or a fold in the pipeline. To avoid or minimize damages, balancing elements are installed into the concerning pipeline, reducing the ground movements which might otherwise cause damages. [ ] The distance between the balancing elements is not arranged by random, but by a calculation method developed in a doctoral thesis [Spielberg, 1999] which represents the actual available standards in science and technology. The calculation method considers all relevant influencing variables with impacts on the movement behaviour of steel pipelines in mining areas, such as technical data of pipeline design (e.g. steel grade, wall thickness, weld seam quality), soil conditions (e.g. friction), laying depths of the pipelines, the operational impacts (working pressure, corrosion) and the mining impacts. As of today, mining has caused no damages to steel pipelines protected by this calculation method.

Jan 1, 2004

By Gabriel S. Esterhuizen

This paper addresses the need for a method to compare the effectiveness of different support systems when designing ground support in coal mines. At present, support design methods include empirical methods based on observations of past performance of installed support systems, analytical methods where the roof is typically simulated by elastic beams and numerical model analysis. The approach presented in this paper estimates the relative stability of a support design through geotechnical evaluation of the rock mass and numerical model analysis of the interaction between the rock mass and the support system. Models are used first to simulate the design performance at the expected rock conditions. The rock strength is then reduced until collapse is indicated in the model. The stability factor is then calculated as the ratio of the expected rock mass strength to the rock mass strength at the onset of collapse, and is similar to the well-known factor of safety used in engineering practice. The stability factor can be used to assist in developing a final support design by comparing the effectiveness of various support systems and the stability of excavations under various geological and loading conditions. Examples of the method?s application in three different geological settings are presented.

Jan 1, 2012

By Joe Wickline, Mark A. Van Dyke, Wen H. Su

"Geological factors and mine design contribute to mining-induced seismic activity, and this is especially true in longwall mining. Massive rock units are a key cause of seismic activity due to catastrophic failures that release large amounts of energy. Other factors, such as overburden depth, panel design, pillar design, rock strength, and proximity of the massive rock unit to the coal seam, all have a role in the potential and size of a seismic event. A recent seismic event was recorded by a deep longwall mine in Virginia at 3.7ML on the local magnitude scale and 3.4 MMS by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in July 2016, which had no impact on the mining operations. Further investigations by NIOSH and Coronado Coal researchers have shown that this event was associated with geological features that have also been associated with other, similar seismic events in Virginia. Detailed mapping and geological exploration in the mining area has made it possible to forecast possible locations for future seismic activity. In order to use the geology as a forecaster of mining-induced seismic events and the energy potential, two primary components are needed. The first component is a long history of recorded seismic events with accurately plotted locations. The second component is a high density of geologic data within the mining area. In this case, 181 events of 1.0ML or greater were recorded by the mine’s seismic network between January, 2009, and October, 2016. Within the mining area, 897 geophysical logs were analyzed from gas wells, 224 core holes were drilled and logged, and 1,031 fiberscope holes were examined by mine geologists. From this information, it was found that overburden thickness, sandstone thickness, and sandstone quality contributed greatly to seismic locations. After analyzing the data, a pattern became apparent indicating that the majority of seismic events occurred under specific conditions. Three maps were created using MineScape geological mapping software. MineScape deploys an interpolator known as FEM (finite element method) and is based on a series of gridded triangles to forecast the probability and magnitude of an event if a particular panel were to be mined. The forecast maps have shown accuracy of within 74%–89% when compared to the recorded 181 events that were 1.0 ML or greater when considering three major geological criteria of overburden thickness of 1900 feet or greater, 20 to 40 feet of sandstone within 50 feet of the Pocahontas number 3 seam, and a longwall caving height of 15 feet or less."

Jan 1, 2017

By Guy Reed, Russell Frith

"Current coal pillar design is the epitome of suspension design. A defined weight of potentially unstable overburden material is estimated, and the dimensions of the pillars left behind are based on holding up that material to a prescribed or user-defined Factor of Safety. In principle, this is seemingly no different to early roadway roof support design. However, for the most part, roadway roof stabilisation has progressed to reinforcement, whereby the roof strata is assisted in supporting itself. This is now the mainstay of efficient and effective underground coal production. Suspension and reinforcement are fundamentally different in their roadway roof stabilisation approach and, importantly, lead to substantially different requirements in terms of roof support hardware characteristics and their application. In suspension design, the primary focus is the total load-bearing capacity of the installed support to ensure that it is securely anchored outside of the potentially unstable roof mass. In contrast, reinforcement recognises that roof de-stabilisation is a gradational process with an ever-increasing roof displacement magnitude leading to ever-reducing stability. In a reinforcing situation, key roof support characteristics relate such design issues as system stiffness, the location and pattern of support elements within the roadway, and mobilising a defined thickness of the immediate roof to create (or build) some form of stabilising strata beam. The objective is to ensure that horizontal stress acts across the roof of the roadway and is maintained at a level that prevents mass roof collapse. This paper presents a prototype coal pillar and overburden system representation where reinforcement, rather than suspension, of the overburden is the stabilising mechanism via the action of in situ horizontal stresses within the overburden, the suspension problem potentially being an exception rather than the rule, as is also the case in roadway roof stability. Established principles relating to roadway roof reinforcement can potentially be applied to coal pillar design under this representation. The merit of this assertion is evaluated according to documented failed pillar cases in a range of mining applications and industries found in a series of published databases. Based on the various findings, a series of coal pillar system design considerations and suggestions for bord and pillar type mine workings are provided. This potentially allows a more flexible and informed approach to coal pillar sizing within workable mining layouts, as compared to common industry practices of a single design Factor of Safety (FoS) under defined overburden dead-loading to the exclusion of other potentially relevant overburden stabilising influences."

Jan 1, 2017

By Arthur Miller, Andrew Weakley, Heather E. Lawson

"IntroductionDynamic failure events in an underground coal mine, or “bumps,” are defined as “the sudden, violent bursts of coal from a pillar or pillars or a block of coal, resulting in a section, the whole pillars, or the solid block of coal being thrown into an open entry” (Peng, 2008). Reports of disastrous and often fatal dynamic failure events date back over one hundred years in the United States. Mining practices and technologies have significantly evolved over the course of the last century, yet these events continue to occur. The events at Crandall Canyon, Utah (Gates et al., 2007) and Brody No. 1 Mine in West Virginia (Barker and McNeely, 2014) are two recent failure events that resulted in a total of eleven fatalities. These events testify to the fact that dynamic failure remains an imperative safety concern. Furthermore, their continued occurrences indicate that engineering controls have proven inadequate at wholly mitigating the problem.Multiple conditions have been associated with the occurrence of dynamic failure phenomena, including• thick, competent strata that can create a bridging effect, resulting in high abutment stresses (Rice, 1935; Holland and Thomas, 1954; Iannacchione and Zelanko, 1995; Agapito and Goodrich, 2000; Peng, 2008; Whyatt, 2008; Whyatt and Varley, 2010)• overburden thicknesses greater than 500–700 ft. (Rice, 1935; Peng, 2008)• a strong coal that is resistant to crushing (Rice, 1935; Peng,2008) or that is “uncleated or poorly cleated, strong…sustains high stress and tends to fail suddenly” (Agapito and Goodrich, 2000)• the presence of sandstone channels or rolls that can serve to concentrate stresses (Iannachione and Zelanko, 1995; Agapito and Goodrich, 2000)• fracturing of strong units above or below the coal seam (Whyatt and Varley, 2010)• slip along pre-existing discontinuities (Peperakis, 1958; Whyatt and Varley, 2010)• multiple seam mining interactions (Campoli, Kertis, and Goode, 1987; Iannachione and Zelanko, 1995; Newman, 2002; Peng, 2008)• mining sequences that can cause anomalously high stress concentrations (Campoli, Kertis, and Goode, 1987; Iannachione and Zelanko, 1995)"

Jan 1, 2015

By Xinchuan Xia

Based on the stepwise strain features and the strength reduction law of the surrounding rock in extremely softrock roadway, this paper proposes a dynamic supporting principle. A new kind of stepwise reinforced technology, which consists of immediate shotcreting, timely bolting and delay grouting, was optimized after thorough analysis and illustrated with a successful engineering example in extremely difficult softrock roadway.

Jan 1, 2000

By W. J. Guo

Overburden movement as a result of longwall mining can be classified into, in ascending order, caving zone, fractured zone, and bending zone. Operation experience and laboratory research have demonstrated that there are bed separations in the bending zone due to differential movement and rock mechanics properties between adjacent strata. In china several coal mines have injected flyash into bed separations to prevent strata movement and control surface subsidence. This method is very effective because it can reduce surface subsidence by 35-55%. Combining the field survey results and laboratory simulation research, the author has investigated bed separation and its mechanisms and effect of backfilling the bed separation and its mechanisms. Finally backfilling application in three mines are introduced, including grout flow chart, grouting pressure, and radius.

Jan 1, 1994

By Robert R. Thompson

Retreat pillar mining is highly productive but dangerous. The primary danger during pillar removal is premature caving of the roof. Because the safety of the miners is dependent on successfully controlling the roof, the roof must cave in a predictable and dependable manner. Temporary support during retreat is usually obtained by setting posts. They are set manually by a miner working in a dangerous area. A solution to this problem would be a system which could set and retrieve roof supports remotely and safely. The Bureau of nines has developed a remotely operated Mobile Roof Support (PIPS) machine which will place and retrieve temporary roof support. Two PIPS machines were fabricated under a cost-sharing agreement with Southern Utah Fuel Company and mining equipment manufacturer. Each machine carries four 50-ton jacks and is remotely- Controlled by radio. The machines are presently being used by Southern Utah Fuel Company under a long-team cooperative agreement. Not only have there been material and manpower cost savings in not having to set posts, but also the time saved bas resulted in increased productivity. The projected costs of mass-produced machines with tethered remote control rather than radio remote control are estimated at $150,000 each. The radio remote control is more expensive and is considered an optional extra.

Jan 1, 1986

By Swapan Bhattacharya

United States federal and state regulatory authorities require underground mine operators to adopt adequate measures to minimize material damage to the surface caused by nine subsidence. This paper presents an approach to define and determine the extent of material damage due to subsidence from underground coal mining. The basic steps involved in the development of adequate criteria have been enumerated together with the approaches and methodologies used.

Jan 1, 1984

By Saeed Zhandi, Behdeen Oraee

"Rock bursts remain an important problem in longwall coal mining. These bursts are due to a sudden and severe failure of rocks from a high stress concentration in deep underground excavations that occur with the instantaneous release of strain energy stored in the rocks. They can potentially cause irrecoverable damage to equipment and personnel, thus accurate rock burst prediction and control is expected to be carried out by the mine design engineer. As a result, this can constitute major challenges for said engineer. In this paper, forensic engineering has been used to evaluate the possibility and extent of rock bursts in deep coal mining. For this purpose, established mining engineering principles, including factors influencing the severity of rock bursts, have been incorporated in the forensic engineering technique. The analyses took place in five steps:• Assessment of regional and local conditions prior to the event• Assessment of conditions after the event• Hypothesize plausible ways in which pre-event conditions can become post-event ones• Search for evidence that either denies or supports various hypotheses• Apply engineering knowledge to relate the various facts and evidence into a cohesive scenario of how the event may have occurred.The paper concludes by demonstrating a method for predicting rock bursts and preventing their reoccurrence. The methodology used in this paper, together with the results obtained, can serve as useful tools for the coal mine design engineer in the primary evaluation of rock burst potential in underground coal mines.INTRODUCTIONA rock burst is defined as the sudden and great failure of rocks due to a high stress concentration in deep underground mines. This phenomenon occurs with the instantaneous release of strain energy that is stored in the rocks, and can cause irrecoverable damages to both equipment and personnel (see Figure 1). Rock bursts pose a hazard owing to their lake of predictability; in fact, research into understanding rock burst mechanics and implementing techniques for their monitoring and prediction has been taking place for over 50 years."

Jan 1, 2015

By Kourosh Shahriar, Kazem Oraee, Ezzeddin Bakhtavar

"In this paper, a relationship between dependant parameters and the crown pillar thickness is first introduced. This relationship defines geotechnical problems caused by thin pillars and economic considerations created by pillars that are thicker than the optimum size. For this purpose, a dimensional analysis as an effective physico-mathematical tool was used. This technique restructures the original dimensional variables of a problem into a set of dimensionless products using the constraints imposed upon them by their dimensions. A model is hence introduced that calculates the optimum pillar thickness. The relationship introduced here and the method applied can be used by mining engineers in all situations where a combined open-pit and block caving method is deemed to be the most appropriate mining method.INTRODUCTIONMany deposits can be mined entirely with the open-pit method; others must be worked underground from the very beginning. In addition, there are the near-surface deposits with considerable vertical extent. Although they are initially exploited by the open pit method, there is often a ""transition depth"" where decision has to be made about changing to underground methods.Some of the biggest open-pit mines worldwide will reach their final pit limits in the next 10 to 15 years. Furthermore, there are many mines planning to change from open-pit to underground mining due to increasing extraction depths and environmental requirements. In this way, it is likely that block and/or panel caving will enable the operations to continue achieving a high production rate at low costs as an underground method (Bakhtavar et al., 2009).In these cases, it is often necessary to consider a crown pillar beneath the transition depth (open-pit floor) before starting an underground caving stope method (Figure 1).There are generally two kinds of crown pillar: a ""surface crown pillar"" and ""crown pillar between open-pit and underground mining."" In general, they both play the similar role in mining. Since the primary purpose of a surface crown pillar is to protect surface land users, the mine, and those working in it from inflows of water, soil, and rock; it is vital that the surface crown pillars remain stable throughout their life. When a crown pillar could potentially remain between open-pit and underground mining it is specially proposed to prevent water entering from the open-pit floor into the stope, as well as to reduce open-pit wall and floor caving."

Jan 1, 2010

By Thomas Barczak

Longwall mines typically use some form of standing support for secondary roof support in longwall tailgate entries. Although there have been several new support products developed for this application, there remains no universal design criteria to optimize the application of these support technologies. The requirement for optimization and proper support selection is to understand the degree of control that the support has on the ground behavior. The ground reaction curve and numerical modeling was used to evaluate the impact of standing support on ground behavior. LaModel was used to evaluate the impact of standing support on main roof and floor behavior and pillar yielding. The conclusion drawn from this study was that standing supports do not have sufficient capacity to control main roof or floor loading or prevent the resulting convergence of the tailgate entry. However, it is imperative that this "uncontrollable convergence" be considered in the support design to prevent premature failure of the support. A FLAC model was used to evaluate the near-seam roof and floor behavior in conjunction with the global vertical and horizontal stresses. The model suggests that standing roof supports can have some impact on the ground behavior as the elastic response of the rock is exceeded and rock structure deteriorates from the stress concentrations that develop around the tailgate opening. During this phase, the capacity and stiffhess of the standing support can be critical to the stability of the opening, as eventually the rock mass will be transformed into a partially detached structure whose weight must be supported by the standing support. This work is part of a ground control program of research at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) aimed at improving mine safety by reducing roof fall injuries and fatalities.

Jan 1, 2005