Restraint effect of partition wall on the tunnel floor heave in layered rock mass

The presence of horizontal layered rocks in tunnel engineering significantly impacts the stability and strength of the surrounding rock mass,leading to floor heave in the tunnel.This study focused on preparing layered specimens of rock-like material with varying thickness to investigate the failure behaviors of tunnel floors.The results indicate that thin-layered rock mass exhibits weak interlayer bonding,causing rock layers near the surface to buckle and break upwards when subjected to horizontal squeezing.With an increase in the layer thickness,a transition in failure mode occurs from upward buckling to shear failure along the plane,leading to a noticeable reduction in floor heave deformation.The primary cause of significant deformation in floor heave is upward buckling failure.To address this issue,the study proposes the installation of a partition wall in the middle of the floor to mitigate heave deformation of the rock layers.The results demonstrate that the partition wall has a considerable stabilizing effect on the floor,reducing the zone of buckling failure and minimizing floor heave deformation.It is crucial for the partition wall to be sufficiently high to prevent buckling failure and ensure stability.Through simulation calculations on an engineering example,it is confirmed that implementing a partition wall can effectively reduce floor heave and enhance the stability of tunnel floor.

Floor heave in the west wing track haulage roadway of the Tingnan Coal Mine: Mechanism and control

Floor heave of a roadway is a dynamic phenomenon that often happens in the roadways of coal mines. It seriously affects safe production in the coal mine. Floor heave has long been one of the most difficult problems to be resolved during coal mining. An analysis of floor heave in the soft rock surrounding the roadway, and the factors influencing it, allowed the deformation mechanism in the west wing double track haulage roadway of the Tingnan Coal Mine to be deduced. Three types of floor heave are observed there: intumescent floor heave, extrusion and mobility floor heave, and compound floor heave. Control measures are proposed that have been adopted during a recent repair engineering project. Control of the floor heave in the west wing track haulage roadway was demonstrated. The reliability and rationality of a combined support technology including floor anchors, an inverted arch, and anchoring of both sides was verified by mine pressure data and the field observations. Waterproofing measures were also under-taken to assist in the control of floor heave.

Anchoring mechanism and application of hydraulic expansion bolts used in soft rock roadway floor heave control

Comparing with the resin bolt, the hydraulic expansion bolt has different anchoring mechanism and application advantage. According to the working mechanism of the hydraulic expansion bolt, its anchoring force is expressed in four forms including support anchoring force, tension anchoring force, expansion anchoring force and tangent anchoring force, and their values can be obtained on the basis of each calculation formula. Among them, the expansion anchoring force, which is the unique anchoring force of the hydraulic expansion bolt, can provide confining pressure to increase the strength of rock. Aiming at solving the problem of stability control in the soft rock roadway in Jinbaotun Coal Mine which has a double layer of 40 U-type sheds and cannot provide enough resistance support to control floor heave, the study reveals the mechanism of floor heave in the soft rock roadway, and designs the reasonable support parameters of the hydraulic expansion bolts. The observed results of floor convergence indicate that the hydraulic expansion bolts can prevent the development and flow of the plastic zone in the floor rock to control floor heave. Research results enrich the control technology in the soft rock roadway.

Controlling floor heave of extraction opening by reinforcing sides and roof

The effect of reinforcing roof, sides and floor corners to control floor heave of extraction opening was analyzed, It was proved by engineering practice and numerical simulation that reinforcing any part of surrounding rock have certainly control effect for floor heave, in the basis of this, the new way that roof, sides and floor corners were rein-forced to control floor heave was put forward. Contrasting control result of reinforcing floor with this, it is determined that reinforcing is more suitable to control floor heave of extrac-tion opening than reinforcing floor when advancing abutment pressure is in some range.

Application of the coal mine floor rating(CMFR)to assess the floor stability in a Central Appalachian Coal Mine

Estimating the overall floor stability in a coal mine using deterministic methods which require complex engineering properties of floor strata is desirable,but generally it is impractical due to the difficulty of gathering essential input data.However,applying a quantitative methodology to describe floor quality with a single number provides a practical estimate for preliminary assessment of floor stability.The coal mine floor rating(CMFR)system,developed by the University of New South Wales(UNSW),is a rockmass classification system that provides an indicator for the competence of floor strata.The most significant components of the CMFR are uniaxial compressive strength and discontinuity intensity of floor strata.In addition to the competence of the floor,depth of cover and stress notch angle are input parameters used to assess the preliminary floor stability.In this study,CMFR methodology was applied to a Central Appalachian Coal Mine that intermittently experienced floor heave.Exploratory drill core data,overburden maps,and mine plans were utilized for the study.Additionally,qualitative data(failure/non-failure)on floor conditions of the mine entries near the core holes was collected and analyzed so that the floor quality and its relation to entry stability could be estimated by statistical methods.It was found that the current CMFR classification system is not directly applicable in assessing the floor stability of the Central Appalachian Coal Mine.In order to extend the applicability of the CMFR classification system,the methodology was modified.A calculation procedure of one of the CMFR classification system’s components,the horizontal stress rating(HSR),was changed and new parameters were added to the HSR.

Support technology of deep roadway under high stress and its application

Roadway instability has been a major concern in the fields of mining engineering. This paper aims to provide practical and efficient strategy to support the roadways under high in-situ stress. A case study on the stability of deep roadways was carried out in an underground mine in Gansu province, China. Currently,the surrounding rock strata is extremely fractured, which results in a series of engineering disasters, such as side wall collapse and severe floor heave in the past decades. Aiming to solve these problems, an improved support method was proposed, which includes optimal bolt parameters and arrangement, floor beam layout by grooving, and full length grouting. Based on the modeling results by FLAC3D, the new support method is much better than the current one in terms of preventing the large deformation of surrounding rock and restricting the development of plastic zones. For implementation and verification, field experiments, along with deformation monitoring, were conducted in the 958 level roadway of Mining II areas. The results show that the improved support can significantly reduce surrounding rock deformation, avoid frequent repair, and maintain the long-term stability of the roadway. Compared to the original support, the new support method can greatly save investment of mines, and has good application value and popularization value.

Stress and deformation analysis of gob-side pre-backfill driving procedure of longwall mining:a case study

At present,non-pillar entry protection in longwall mining is mainly achieved through either the gob-side entry retaining(GER)procedure or the gob-side entry driving(GED)procedure.The GER procedure leads to difficulties in maintaining the roadway in mining both the previous and current panels.A narrow coal pillar about 5-7 m must be left in the GED procedure;therefore,it causes permanent loss of some coal.The gob-side pre-backfill driving(GPD)procedure effectively removes the wasting of coal resources that exists in the GED procedure and finds an alternative way to handle the roadway maintenance problem that exists in the GER procedure.The FLAC^(3D) software was used to numerically investigate the stress and deformation distributions and failure of the rock mass surrounding the previous and current panel roadways during each stage of the GPD procedure which requires"twice excavation and mining".The results show that the stress distribution is slightly asymmetric around the previous panel roadway after the"primary excavation".The stronger and stiffer backfill compared to the coal turned out to be the main bearing body of the previous panel roadway during the"primary mining".The highest vertical stresses of 32.6 and 23.1 MPa,compared to the in-situ stress of 10.5 MPa,appeared in the backfill wall and coal seam,respectively.After the"primary mining",the peak vertical stress under the coal seam at the floor level was slightly higher(18.1 MPa)than that under the backfill(17.8 MPa).After the"secondary excavation",the peak vertical stress under the coal seam at the floor level was slightly lower(18.7 MPa)than that under the backfill(19.8 MPa);the maximum floor heave and maximum roof sag of the current panel roadway were 252.9 and 322.1 mm,respectively.During the"secondary mining",the stress distribution in the rock mass surrounding the current panel roadway was mainly affected by the superposition of the front abutment pressure from the current panel and the side abutment pressure from the previous panel.The floor heave of the current panel roadway reached a maximum of 321.8 mm at 5 m ahead of the working face;the roof sag increased to 828.4 mm at the working face.The peak abutment pressure appeared alternately in the backfill and the coal seam during the whole procedure of"twice excavation and mining"of the GPD procedure.The backfill provided strong bearing capacity during all stages of the GPD procedure and exhibited reliable support for the roadway.The results provide scientific insight for engineering practice of the GPD procedure.