Backfill support＇s backfill and operation properties and evaluation

To ensure compacted backfilling, it is essential to ensure the reliability of the performance of a solid backfill support, key equipment for integrating backfilling and mining. To evaluate the backfilling performance of a backfill support, the concept of backfill and operation properties is proposed in this study. Moreover, it is elaborated in terms of five aspects, namely, structural property, supporting property, tamping property, mechanical response property, and geological adaptation property, which are specifically reflected by 14 indexes including the supporting intensity and vertical roof gap. Seven separate evaluation indexes are selected to build a backfill and operation properties based system for evaluating the design schemes of the backfill support via a multi-index comprehensive evaluation method; then, the evaluation method and process together with measures to control the backfill and operation properties are proposed. By using this system, 11 schemes for optimizing the ZC5200/14.5/3 backfill support at Zhaizhen Coal Mine are evaluated, and scheme #10 is found to show superior vertical roof gap and other backfill and operation properties, thus demonstrating the reasonability of the evaluation system. On this basis, the backfill support research framework of designing initial scheme, optimizing design scheme, selecting the best evaluation indexes, evaluating optimizing scheme, and evaluating operation properties is built; this should serve as an important reference for further studies on the roof controlling performance of a backfill support.