Design concerns of room and pillar retreat panels

Why do some room and pillar retreat panels encounter abnormal conditions？ What factors deserve the most consideration during the planning and execution phases of mining and what can be done to mitigate those abnormal conditions when they are encountered7 To help answer these questions, and to determine some of the relevant factors influencing the conditions of room and pillar （R ＆ P） retreat min- ing entries, four consecutive R ＆ P retreat panels were evaluated. This evaluation was intended to rein- force the influence of topographic changes, depth of cover, multiple-seam interactions, geological conditions, and mining geometry. This paper details observations were made in four consecutive R ＆ P retreat panels and the data were collected from an instrumentation site during retreat mining. The pri- mary focus was on the differences observed among the four panels and within the panels themselves. The instrumentation study was initially planned to evaluate the interactions between primary and secondary support, but produced rather interesting results relating to the loading encountered under the current mining conditions. In addition to the obse^ation and ｜ll^trumentation, numerical modeling was per- formed to evaluate the stress condi~!ons. Both the LaModel 3.0 and Rocscience Phase 2 programs were used to evaluate these four panels, The results of both models indicated a drastic reduction in the vertical stresses experienced in these panels due to the full extraction mining in overlying seams when compared to the full overburden load. Both models showed a higher level of stress associated with the outside entries of the panels. These results agree quite well with the observations and instrumentation studies performed at the mine. These efforts provided two overarching conclusions concerning R ＆ P retreat mine planning and execution. The first was that there are four areas that should not be overlooked during R ＆ P retreat mining： topographic relief, multiple^seaPa stress relief, stress concentrations near the gob edge, and geologic changes in the immediate roof. The second is that in order to successfully retreat an R ＆ P panel, a three-phased approach to the design and analysis of the panel should be conducted： the planning phase, evaluation phase, and monitoring phase.

Ground pressure and overlying strata structure for a repeated mining face of residual coal after room and pillar mining

To investigate the abnormal ground pressures and roof control problem in fully mechanized repeated mining of residual coal after room and pillar mining, the roof fracture structural model and mechanical model were developed using numerical simulation and theoretical analysis. The roof fracture characteristics of a repeated mining face were revealed and the ground pressure law and roof supporting condi- tions of the repeated mining face were obtained. The results indicate that when the repeated mining face passes the residual pillars, the sudden instability causes fracturing in the main roof above the old goal and forms an extra-large rock block above the mining face. A relatively stable ＂Voussoir beam＂ structure is formed after the advance fracturing of the main roof. When the repeated mining face passes the old goaf, as the large rock block revolves and touches gangue, the rock block will break secondarily under overburden rock loads. An example calculation was performed involving an integrated mine in Shanxi province, results showed that minimum working resistance values of support determined to be reason- able were respectively 11,412 kN and 10,743 kN when repeated mining face passed through residual pillar and goaf. On-site ground pressure monitoring results indicated that the mechanical model and support resistance calculation were reasonable.

Geodetic Monitoring of the Surface within the Trial Operation of the Room and Pillar Mining Method in the Ostrava-Karvina Coal District

Mine Plant 2 is a part of the Ostrava-Karvina Coal District (OKD) that is located in the Czech part of the Upper Silesian Basin. The first coal was exhausted from Mine Plant 2 in 1968. The most used method of mining so far in this area has been strike longwall mining with controlled caving. Due to extensive changes in the surface, which occur as a consequence of deep mining by the method of longwall mining with controlled caving, it is not possible to use this method in densely populated areas. At the present time, therefore, the trial operation of a new mining method called room and pillar is carried out. The method was chosen with the aim to minimize subsidence and deformations of the surface. The room and pillar mining method has never been used before in the conditions of the OKR, therefore it is necessary to prove the real effect of mining by this method on the surface. For this purpose, a surface observation station was designed, consisting of 36 surface points. The position and height of all points of the observation station is determined in stages three times a year.

Geomechanical design of a room and rib pillar granite mine

The geomechanical and stability design of an underground granite mine located in Canal San Bovo （Trento district, Northeastern Italy） was described. The exploitation of the granite, which is used in the ceramic industry, was carried out by the rooms and rib pillars method. The rooms are 12 m wide while the pillars are 11 m wide and they cross the main discontinuity set of the rock mass in the perpendicular direction. To verify the stability condition of an underground mine, it is necessary to carry out the calcula- tions that are able to check both the local and global stability of the rock mass. In the studied example, this approach has been applied with the development of analytical and numerical parametric analyses and it has permitted to get the best orientation and to design the size of rooms and pillars.

Synergistic instability of coal pillar and roof system and filling method based on plate model

The security challenges from room and pillar gobs include land subsidence, spontaneous combustion of coal pillars and mine flood caused by gob water. To explore the instability mechanism of room and pillar gob, we established a mechanical model of elastic plate on elastic foundation in which pillars and hard roofs were considered as continuous Winkler foundations and elastic plates, respectively. The synergetic instability of pillar and roof system was analyzed based on plate bending theory and catastrophe theory. In addition, mechanical conditions and math criterion of roof failure and overall instability of coal pillar and roof system were given. Through analyzing both advantages and disadvantages of some technologies such as induced caving, filling, gob sealing and isolation, we presented a new filling method named box-filling, in view of box foundation theory, to control the disasters of ground collapse, water inrush and mine fire. In a gob's treatment project in Ordos, safety assessment and filling design of a room and pillar gob have been done by the mechanical model. The results show that the gob will collapse when the pillars' average yield band is wider than 0.93 m, and box-filling can control land collapse, mine flood and mine fire economically and efficiently. So it is worth to study further and popularize.

3D reconstruction method and connectivity rules of fracture networks generated under different mining layouts

In current research, a series of triaxial tests, which were employed to simulate three typical mining lay-outs (i.e., top-coal caving, non-pillar mining and protected coal seam mining), were conducted on coal by using MTS815 Flex Test GT rock mechanics test system, and the fracture networks in the broken coal samples were qualitatively and quantitatively investigated by employing CT scanning and 3D reconstruc-tion techniques. This work aimed at providing a detail description on the micro-structure and fracture-connectivity characteristics of rupture coal samples under different mining layouts. The results show that: (i) for protected coal seam mining layout, the coal specimens failure is in a compression-shear manner and oppositely, (ii) the tension-shear failure phenomenon is observed for top-coal caving and non-pillar mining layouts. By investigating the connectivity features of the generated fractures in the direction of r1 under different mining layouts, it is found that the connectivity level of the fractures of the samples corresponding to non-pillar mining layout was the highest.

Analysis and research of long-term stability about the gob site in Northern Shaanxi Province

Based on the analysis of the basic characteristics for the gob site in Northern Shaanxi Province and the room and pillar mining way about coal mine, the variety rule of the coal beds below the site was studied by the using of FEM during the process of coal mining. The statuses of the stresses and strains and the varieties of the plastic area were simulated in the whole rock and coal pillars. The characters of stresses and deformation of the gob area of the coalmine were analyzed and evaluated after the site built in weathering. Moreover, the long-term stability of the gob area was predicted. As a result, the deformation of the gob area under the site is not been finished, and there is the danger that the gob site will collapsing as a whole; therefore, relative measures must be taken.