Reasonable location of stopping line in close‑distance underlying coal seam and partition support of large cross‑section roadway

Close-distance coal seams are widely distributed over China,and the coal pillars left by the overlying coal seams afect the retracement channel of the underlying coal seam in the stopping stage.Based on the engineering background of close-distance seam mining in a coal mine,the reasonable position of the underlying coal seam's stopping line and the support method of the large section roadway during stopping are investigated using feld measurements,similar simulation experiments,and numerical simulations.There are three types of location relationships between the stopping line of the underlying coal seam and the stopping line of the overlying coal seam:"externally staggered with the upper stopping line"(ESUL,stops mining under the overlying goaf),"overlapped with upper stopping line"(OUL),and"internally staggered with the upper stopping line"(ISUL,ISUL-SD for shorter internal staggered distances,ISUL-LD for longer ones).There are diferent stress arch structures in the overlying strata of the above three positions,and the stress arch evolution process exists in the process of ESUL→OUL→ISUL-SD→ISUL-LD:a front and rear double stress arch structure→the front arch gradually decreases→the front arch dies out,and the double arch synthesizes the single arch→the single-arch range expands→the nested double arch.The relationship between the stress arch structure and the position of the stopping line is evaluated as follows:(1)ESUL:the stress concentration in the roof plate of the retracement channel of the underlying coal seam is the highest,because the overburden block of the extensive collapse zone acts directly on the roof plate of the retracement channel,resulting in relative difculties in roof support.(2)OUL:although the retracement channel roof pressure is minimal,the overlying rock structure has the potential for rotation or slippage instability.(3)ISUL-SD:the pressure on the roof of the retracement channel is small and the overburden structure is stable,which is conducive to the safe retraction of the support and not limited by the width of the end-mining coal pillar.(4)ISUL-LD:it is basically the same as the condition of stopping under the non-goaf;however,it has a limitation on the width of the end-mining coal pillar.The location of the stopping line is selected as ISUL-SD,and the retraction process of the self-excavating retraction channel was adopted.A partition asymmetric support scheme which is proven by feld practice is proposed,through a comprehensive analysis of the pre-stress feld simulation of the support scheme,based on the diferent control requirements of the roof above the support and the roof of the retracement channel in the stopping area.This method realizes safe and smooth withdrawal of the support.

Control of floor heaves with steel pile in gob-side entry retaining

A new approach named as steel pile method is innovatively proposed in this study to control severe floor heaves in gob-side entry retaining. It is required that the steel piles be installed in the floor corners with a certain interval before the influence of the dynamic pressure induced by current panel extraction. Using numerical simulation and theoretical analysis, this study investigated the interaction between the steel piles and the floor rocks during the service life of the steel piles, and revealed the mechanism of the steel piles in controlling floor heaves. The effect of the steel pile parameters on the control of floor heaves was presented and elaborated. It is found that the effectiveness of the steel piles in controlling floor heaves can be enhanced with greater installed dip angle, longer length and smaller interval of the steel piles.Compared with traditional methods, e.g., using floor anchor bolts and floor restoration, the advantages using steel pile were successfully defined in terms of controlling effect and economic benefits. It is hoped that the proposed method can contribute to the development of gob-side entry retaining technique.

Finite difference analysis of an advance core pre-reinforcement system for Toulon's south tube

The stability of shallow tunnels excavated in full face has been a major challenge to the scientific community for a long time. In recent years, new techniques based on the installation of a pre-reinforcement system ahead of the tunnel face were developed to control the deformations and surface settlements induced by the excavation and to ensure the sustainability of the tunnel in the long term. In this paper, a finite difference numerical simulation was conducted to study the behaviors and effects of two pre-reinforcement systems, i.e. the face bolting and the umbrella arch system installed in a section of southern Toulon tunnel in France. For this purpose, two approaches were taken and compared： a two-dimensional （2D） approach based on the convergence–confinement method, and a three-dimensional （3D） approach taking into account the complete modeling of the tunnel. A 2D numerical back-analysis was performed to identify the geomechanical parameters that offer satisfactory agreement with the measurement results. The limit of this method lies in the exact choice of the stress relaxation ratio λ. To overcome this uncertainty, a 3D model was developed, which permitted to study the influence of different pre-support systems on the reaction of ground mass. Both 2D and 3D numerical approaches have been fitted to measurements recorded in a section of the Toulon tunnel and the very satisfactory correspondence has allowed validating the simulations. The results show that the 3D numerical analysis with a full discretization of the inclusions seems unquestionably the most reliable approach.

Stress arch bunch and its formation mechanism in blocky stratified rock masses

Stress arch is a common phenomenon occurring in continuous materials and has also l：een proved to have great influences on the self-stabilization of soils or rock masses after excavation. In this paper, based on UDEC simulation, stress redistribution after excavation is investigated for a kind of special discontinuous material, i.e. blocky stratified rock mass. A layered stress arch system is observed with each stress arch lying over another. This special phenomenon is defined herein as ＂stress arch bunch＂. Effects of dip angle of bedding plane, lateral pressure and joint offset on this stress arch bunch are studied. Its formation mechanism is also discussed based on voussoir beam theory.

A laboratory study of stress arching around an inclusion due to pore pressure changes

When the pore pressure in a porous rock changes, stress arching will occur within the rock and the surrounding region. Stress arching ratio is defined as the total stress changes in the porous rock to the pore pressure change in the region. The region may have the same or different elastic moduli with the surrounding rock, which is usually referred to as inclusion or inhomogeneity. Stress arching is responsible for many geomechanical problems encountered during production or injection; in addition, it is a crucial parameter in stress estimation during field development. This paper aims to present laboratory measurements of vertical stress arching ratio in a material surrounding the inclusion(inhomogeneity).To the authors’ knowledge, few laboratory experiments have been reported on direct measurement of stress arching. The inclusion is a cylindrical sandstone(44 mm in diameter and 50 mm in height)embedded in a larger cylindrical sandstone(150 mm in diameter and 154 mm in height), both of which are made synthetically. These two parts are separated and sealed by a internal polyurethane sleeve.Vertical stress changes are recorded by a mini hydraulic sensor embedded in surrounding rock. Laboratory results are compared to those obtained by numerical models. These models are checked with analytical formulations. The results of numerical models show a good agreement with laboratory data.The numerical results also indicate that the sensor response is affected by elastic properties of the internal sleeve. According to the sensitivity analysis performed, in the absence of the internal sleeve,properties of the inclusion have significant effects on the surrounding stress arching induced.

Study on the performance of arch dam influenced by relaxation of the foundations following excavation

This paper studies the influence of a stress relaxation zone caused by foundation excavation on the performance of Jinping-I arch dam, using the orthogonal experiment method. Firstly, by adopting the characteristic stress of the dam as an index and coupling it with range analysis, the most significant factors and the degree of relaxation influence on the arch dam performance are found. This is then combined with monitoring data from the dam, and the extent of influence on the arch dam performance caused by the relaxation is evaluated through numerical analysis. The results show that the relaxation of foundation excavation has a negative impact on the performance of the arch dam in general, the extent of elastic modulus degradation in the relaxation zone being the main factor affecting stresses in the dam. The relaxation of the rock mass leads to an increase in dam stress in local areas near the relaxation zone, but has little effect on more distant areas.