Mechanical model for controlling floor heave in deep roadways with U-shaped steel closed support

Open U-shaped steel arch supports are commonly used in large-section static-pressure roadways in coal mines that are more than 900 m deep;however,it is very difficult to control floor heave of roadways.In this paper,a U-shaped steel closed support with an inverted U-shaped steel arch in the floor is proposed as a method for improving the support effect of the surrounding rock during the process of floor heaving.This research established a mechanical model for the U-shaped steel closed support,and determined the reaction forces at the connection of a camber angle.Using the limit load method calculated the critical buckling load of the inverted U-shaped steel arch,and use of a strength check method tested the strength of the U-shaped steel material.A numerical simulation was conducted using the finite difference software FLAC3 D.The simulation results show that the U-shaped steel closed support is able to control the floor heave of roadways,which is successfully used in the West 11-2 development roadway of the Zhuji Mine in the Huainan mining area in China.The cumulative floor heave over two years was less than50 mm.