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.

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.

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.