Reinforcing effects of polypropylene on energy absorption and fracturing of cement-based tailings backfill under impact loading

Polypropylene(PP)fiber-reinforced cement-based tailings backfill(FRCTB)is a green compound material with superior crack resistance and has good prospects for application in underground mining.However,FRCTB exhibits susceptibility to dynamic events,such as impact ground pressure and blast vibrations.This paper investigates the energy and crack distribution behavior of FRCTB under dynamic impact,considering the height/diameter(H/D)effect.Split Hopkinson pressure bar,industrial computed tomography scan,and scanning electron microscopy(SEM)experiments were carried out on six types of FRCTB.Laboratory outcomes confirmed fiber aggregation at the bottom of specimens.When H/D was less than 0.8,the proportion of PP fibers distributed along theθangle direction of80°-90°increased.For the total energy,all samples presented similar energy absorption,reflectance,and transmittance.However,a rise in H/D may cause a rise in the energy absorption rate of FRCTB during the peak phase.A positive correlation existed between the average strain rate and absorbed energy per unit volume.The increase in H/D resulted in a decreased crack volume fraction of FRCTB.When the H/D was greater than or equal to 0.7,the maximum crack volume fraction of FRCTB was observed close to the incidence plane.Radial cracks were present only in the FRCTB with an H/D ratio of 0.5.Samples with H/D ratios of 0.5 and 0.6 showed similar distributions of weakly and heavily damaged areas.PP fibers can limit the emergence and expansion of cracks by influencing their path.SEM observations revealed considerable differences in the bonding strengths between fibers and the FRCTB.Fibers that adhered particularly well to the substrate were attracted together with the hydration products adhering to surfaces.These results show that FRCTB is promising as a sustainable and green backfill for determining the design properties of mining with backfill.

Microstructural evolution and strengthening mechanism of aligned steel fiber cement-based tail backfills exposed to electromagnetic induction

Cemented tailings backfill(CTB)not only boosts mining safety and cuts surface environmental pollution but also recovers ores previously retained as pillars,thereby improving resource utilization.The use of alternative reinforcing products,such as steel fiber(SF),has continuously strengthened CTB into SFCTB.This approach prevents strength decreases over time and reinforces its long-term durability,especially when mining ore in adjacent underground stopes.In this study,various microstructure and strength tests were performed on SFCTB,considering steel fiber ratio and electromagnetic induction strength effects.Lab findings show that combining steel fibers and their distribution dominantly influences the improvement of the fill’s strength.Fill’s strength rises by fiber insertion and has an evident correlation with fiber insertion and magnetic induction strength.When magnetic induction strength is 3×10^(-4) T,peak uniaxial compressive stress reaches 5.73 MPa for a fiber ratio of 2.0vol%.The cracks’expansion mainly started from the specimen’s upper part,which steadily expanded downward by increasing the load until damage occurred.The doping of steel fiber and its directional distribution delayed crack development.When the doping of steel fiber was 2.0vol%,SFCTBs showed excellent ductility characteristics.The energy required for fills to reach destruction increases when steel-fiber insertion and magnetic induction strength increase.This study provides notional references for steel fibers as underground filling additives to enhance the fill’s durability in the course of mining operations.

Prediction and prevention of rockburst in metal mines--A case study of Sanshandao gold mine

Rockburst is a kind of artificial earthquake induced by human activities,such as mining excavations.The mechanism of rockburst induced by mining disturbance is revealed in terms of energy in this context.For understanding the rockburst mechanism,two necessary conditions for the occurrence of rockburst are presented:(1)the rock mass has the capability to store huge amount of energy and possesses a strong bumping-prone characteristic when damaged;and(2)the geological conditions in the mining area have favorable geo-stress environments that can form high-stress concentration area and accumulate huge energy.These two conditions are also the basic criteria for prediction of rockburst.In view of energy analysis,it is observed that artificial and natural earthquakes have similar regularities in many aspects,such as the relationship between the energy value and burst magnitude.By using the relationship between energy and magnitude of natural earthquake,rockburst is predicted by disturbance energy analysis.A practical example is illustrated using the above-mentioned theorem and technique to predict rockburst in a gold mine in China.Finally,the prevention and control techniques of rockburst are also provided based on the knowledge of the rockburst mechanism.

Criterion of local energy release rate of gob instability in deep mines considering unloading stress path

The stress path characteristics of surrounding rock in the formation of gob were analyzed and the unloading was solved. Taking Chengchao Iron Mine as the engineering background, the model for analyzing the instability of deep gob was established based on the mechanism of stress relief in deep mining.The energy evolution law was analyzed by introducing the local energy release rate index(LERR), and the energy criterion of the instability of surrounding rock was established based on the cusp catastrophe theory. The results show that the evolution equation of the local energy release of the surrounding rock is a quartic function with one unknown and the release rate increases gradually during the mining process.The calculation results show that the gob is stable. The LERR per unit volume of the bottom structure is relatively smaller which means that the stability is better. The LERR distribution showed that there was main energy release in the horizontal direction and energy concentration in the vertical direction which meets the characteristics of deep mining. In summary, this model could effectively calculate the stability of surrounding rock in the formation of gob. The LERR could reflect the dynamic process of energy release,transfer and dissipation and that provided an important reference for the study of the stability of deep mined out area.

Numerical simulation of land subsidence and verification of its character for an iron mine using sublevel caving

Combined with a digital bored photography system and in-situ statistics concerning the joints and fissures of both ore-body and surrounding rock,a 2D discrete model was constructed using UDEC.The stress field and displacement field changes of different sublevel stoping systems were also studied.Changes in the overlying rock strata settlement pattern has been analyzed and validated by in-situ monitoring data.The results show that:in the caving process,there exists an obvious delay and jump for the overlying rock strata displacement over time,and a stable arch can be formed in the process of caving,which leads to hidden goafs.Disturbed by the mining activity,a stress increase occurred in both the hanging wall and the foot wall,demonstrating a hump-shaped distribution pattern.From the comparison between simulation results and in-situ monitoring results,land subsidence shows a slow-development,suddenfailure,slow-development cycle pattern,which leads eventually to a stable state.This pattern validates the existence of balanced arch and hidden goafs.

The research of mine rock burst hazard identification based on fault tree analysis

In order to identify the rock burst hazard in coalmine and thus to give a credible forecast, firstly, analyzed such effect factors as natural geological factors and mining technological conditions based on the investigation of more than one hundred mine rock burst cases. Secondly, adopted the fault tree analysis （FTA） technology to the mine rock burst hazard identification for the first time and confirmed twelve kinds of basic events, that is, the large mining depth, the burst-orientation coal seams, the solid strata of roof and bottom, near the faults with bigger fall, the folds, the change of seam thickness, other regional tectonics transformation or stress strip, the drilling, blasting and extracting operation, the unscientific extracting methods, the illogical extracting sequence, the residual pillars and the too close distance between the working face and the residual areas or the stopping extracting lines. Moreover, worked out the fault tree of mine rock burst. At last, it made qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis and forecasted the rock burst hazard according to the characteristic of geologic structure and exploitation technology conditions in certain mine of Shandong Province, China, the rock burst accidents happened in the following exploitation validated that it is of feasibility and veracity adopting FTA to identify the mine rock burst hazard.

Propagating Characteristic of Premixed Methane-Oxygen Deflagration in the Coal Mine Lane Including a Refuge Chamber

In order to investigate detonation propagation and distribution problems of premixed CH_4 ＋ 2O_2 mixture around a concrete structure such as a refuge chamber,detonation experiments in one small size tube were conducted. A simulation method was developed to obtain the flow field load distribution in the coal mine lane and pressure load of each part for the refuge chamber. Firstly,a physical model of a full-size explosiontest lane was established,which included the refuge chamber. With the calculations of the exact initial detonation pressure,the propagation characteristics of CH_4 ＋ 2O_2 premixed mixture detonation in the lane was simulated. Simulation results of various parts from AUTODYN are recorded,and the shock wave arrival time and the pressure peak can be observed from the detonation pressure-time curve over the changing propagation distance. So curve differences in different locations cannot be ignored. Then by detonation experiments in the small size tube,detonation pressure-time curves and velocity were obtained. Finally the simulation waveform of variation curve agreed well with the experimental results,which validated the detonation simulation method. The difference between shockwaves of the two sensors confirmed that detonation wave changed along with distance and time. These results should be taken into serious consideration for the detonation progration and distribution problem in future researches.

Effect of layer thickness on the flexural property and microstructure of 3D-printed rhomboid polymer-reinforced cemented tailing composites

For mines with poor ore bodies and surrounding rocks,the general mining method does not allow the ore to be extracted from underground safely and efficiently.For these mines,the downward layered filling mining technique is undoubtedly the most suitable mining method.The downward filling mining technique may eliminate the troubles relating to poor ore deposit conditions,such as production safety,ore loss rate,and depletion rate.However,in this technique,the safety of the artificial roof of the next stratum is of paramount importance.Cementitious tailings backfilling(CTB)that is not sufficiently cemented and causes collapses could threaten ore production.This paper explores a diamond-shaped composite structure to mimic the stability of a glued false roof in an actual infill mine based on the recently emerged three-dimensional(3D)printing technology.Experimental means such as three-point bending and digital image correlation(DIC)techniques were used to explore the flexural characteristics of 3D construction specimens and CTB combinations with different cement/tailings weight ratios at diverse layer heights.The results show that the 3D structure with a 14-mm ply height and CTB has strong flexural characteristics,with a maximum deflection value of 30.1 mm,while the 3D-printed rhomboid polymer(3D-PRP)structure with a 26-mm ply height is slightly worse in terms of flexural strength characteristics,but it has a higher maximum flexural strength of 2.83 MPa.A combination of 3D structure and CTB has more unique mechanical properties than CTB itself.This research work offers practical knowledge on the artificial roof performance of the downward layered filling mining technique and builds a scientific knowledge base regarding the successful application of CTB material in mines.

In situ kinetics and flocs conformation studies of kaolinite flocculated by Chi-g-CPAM

This study presents a comparative study of the flocculation behavior of kaolinite induced by chitosan-graft-poly(acrylamide-dimethyl diallyl ammonium chloride)(Chi-g-CPAM) and a commercial cationic polyacrylamide(CPAM).The flocculation behaviour was characterised in terms of both flocculation kinetics and the corresponding morphology changes during flocculation.Both Chi-g-CPAM and CPAM were grafted from silica wafers by means of atom transfer radical polymerization(ATRP).The quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation(QCM-D) tests were conducted.The equilibrium time flocculated by Chi-g-CPAM was found to be 0.46 times as that of CPAM,together with a larger total mass of kaolinite layer.The flocculation behaviour by Chi-g-CPAM can be well captured by a pseudo-first-order model.In contrast,the presence of CPAM leads to a more complex kinetics.A relatively larger fitting slope(0.4663) was obtained at the initial stage but the fitting slope droped to 0.2026 after 800 min,indicating a densification process caused by CPAM.The flocculation kinetics of CPAM can be captured by the Elovich model for the inital stage but the combination of pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models for the latter stages,which can be attributed to the long chain of CPAM.With a dosage of 75 g/t,the settling test with Chi-g-CPAM exhibits the same turbidity in the supernatant but a smaller layer thickness of the settlement compared to CPAM.The study enables a better understanding of the flocculation behavior and contributes to the development of efficient flocculants in mineral processing and tailings treatment.

Mechanical properties and failure modes of stratified backfill under triaxial cyclic loading and unloading

Multiple filling of gobs will lead to a layered structure of the backfill.To explore the influence of layering structure on the mechanical properties and failure modes of backfill,different backfill specimens were prepared with a cement/sand ratio of 1:4,a slurry concentration of 75%,and backfilling times of 1,2,3 and 4,separately.Triaxial cyclic loading and unloading experiments were carried out.The results show that with an increase in backfilling time,the peak strength of backfill decreases as a polynomial function and the peak strain increases as an exponential function.The cyclic load enhances the linear characteristic of backfill deformation.The loading and unloading deformation moduli have a linear negative correlation with the backfilling time.The unloading deformation modulus is always slightly higher than the loading deformation modulus.The failure modes of stratified backfill are mainly characterized by conjugate shear failure at the upper layer and tensile failure across the layer plane,and there is usually no damage in the lower layer away from the loading area.

Reconstruction of broken Si–O–Si bonds in iron ore tailings (IOTs) in concrete

This paper reports a study on the reconstruction of broken Si O Si bonds in iron ore tailings (IOTs) in concrete. Limestone and IOTs were used to investigate the influence of different types of coarse aggregates on the compressive strengths of concrete samples. The dif- ferences in interfacial transition zones (ITZs) between aggregate and paste were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and ener- gy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Meanwhile, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and infrared spectroscopy (IR) were used to study microscopic changes in limestone and IOTs powders in a simple alkaline environment that simulated cement. The results show that the compressive strengths of IOTs concrete or paste are higher than those of limestone concrete or paste under identical conditions. The Ca/Si atom ratios in the ITZs of IOTs con- crete samples are lower than those of limestone concrete;the diffraction peak of the calcium silicate phase at 2θ = 29.5°, as well as the bands of Si O bonds shifting to lower wavenumbers, indicates reconstruction of the broken Si-O-Si bonds on the surfaces of IOTs with Ca(OH)2.

Compressive fatigue behavior and failure evolution of additive fiber-reinforced cemented tailings composites

The ordinary cemented tailings backfill(CTB)is a cement-based composite prepared from tailings,cementitious materials,and water.In this study,a series of laboratory tests,including uniaxial compression,digital image correlation measurement,and scanning electron microscope characteristics of fiber-reinforced CTB(FRCTB),was conducted to obtain the uniaxial compressive strength(UCS),failure evolution,and microstructural characteristics of FRCTB specimens.The results show that adding fibers could increase the UCS values of the CTB by 6.90%to 32.76%.The UCS value of the FRCTB increased with the increase in the polypropylene(PP)fiber content.Moreover,the reinforcement effect of PP fiber on the CTB was better than that of glass fiber.The addition of fiber could increase the peak strain of the FRCTB by0.39%to 1.45%.The peak strain of the FRCTB increased with the increase in glass fiber content.The failure pattern of the FRCTB was coupled with tensile and shear failure.The addition of fiber effectively inhibited the propagation of cracks,and the bridging effect of cracks by the fiber effectively improved the mechanical properties of the FRCTB.The findings in this study can provide a basis for the backfilling design and optimization of mine backfilling methods.

Application and reliability analysis of DPM system in site investigation of HK weathered granite

A drilling process monitor （DPM） for ground characterization of weathered granite is presented. The monitor is portable and can be mounted on a hydraulic rotary drilling rig to record various drilling parameters in real time during normal subsurface investigation. The identification method for dominative and subsidiary interfaces has been established. The study reveals that the monitored drilling parameters are dependent on geotechnical materials and can be further applied to characterize ground interfaces. The t-test between manual logging and DPM logging has been carried out. The results show that the DPM has high accuracy in interfaces detection and well agreement with the manual logging. The findings show that the device and data analysis method are of potential application in subsurface drilling exploration in weathered granites. It also seems to have prospective uses in the determination of orebody boundary as well as in the detection of geohazards.

Coal and gas outburst prevention using new high water content cement slurry for injection into the coal seam

As coal and gas outburst is one of the most serious mine disasters, it is very important to at least control it if not prevent it from occurring. Injecting cement slurry or grouting into the coal seam can strengthen the seam, increase its rigidity coefficient(f), and reduce the volumetric expansion due to gas energy release.This paper reports the results of laboratory experiments on cement-based high water content slurry having different water-cement ratios(W/C) to be used for coal injection. The results show that as the W/C increases, the mobility of the slurry and its setting time increase. The compressive strength and rupture strength, however, are reduced. Furthermore, high W/C grout shows early strength after 7 days, which can be 80% of its 14-day compressive strength. To achieve rapid setting and early strength, the addition of Na_2SiO_3has proven to give the best result, when the concentration of the additive is 3%. The initial and final setting times are 13 and 21 min shorter than samples without Na_2SiO_3, while the compressive strength is more than double. As a retarder, the initial setting time can be extended to 83 min when tartaric acid of 0.4% concentration is added. Through the orthogonal experiment, the optimum recipe of the new high water content slurry has been determined to be: W/C = 2, tartaric acid = 0.2%, Na_2SiO_3= 3%, and12% bentonite. Reinforcement by injection simulation experiments show that the grouting radius of the new slurry mix is 250 mm when the applied grouting pressure is 60 k Pa, 7-day rupture strength and compressive strength are 5.2 and 6.4 MPa, respectively, and are 37% and 88% higher than ordinary cement grout. It can be concluded that the newly developed slurry mix is more effective than the ordinary mix for reinforcing coal and controlling gas outburst.

Research on characters of surrounding rock in complex geology conditions and supporting time

The methods combined by test, field monitoring and theoretical analysis were adopted to do the systemic research on the rock mass from micro-structure to macro-deformation, and rheological model of Jinchuan rock mass was established to discuss the reasonable supporting time. Resuhs show that supporting after suitable stress and displacement release can benefit for the long-term stability of surrounding rock.

Effect of coal levels during direct reduction roasting of high phosphorus oolitic hematite ore in a tunnel kiln

The effect of coal levels on phosphorus removal from a high phosphorus oolitic hematite ore after direct reduction roasting have been investigated. Raw ore, coal, and a dephosphorizatiou agent were mixed and the mixture was then roasted in a tunnel kiln. The roasted products were treated by two stages of grind- ing followed by magnetic separation. XRD and SEM-EDS examination of the products was used to analyze differences in the roasted products. The results show that coal is one of the most important factors affect- ing the direct reduction roasting process. When the inner coal levels increased from 0% to 15% the iron grade decreased linearly from 94.94%to 88.81% and the iron recovery increased from 55.94% to 92.94%. At the same time the phosphorus content increased from 0.045% to 0.231%. Increasing the inner coal levels also caused more hematite to be reduced to metallic iron but the oolitic structure of the roasted product was preserved in the presence of high coal loading. The phase of the phosphorus in raw ore was not changed after direct reduction roasting. The effect of coal on the phosphorus content in the H-concentrate arises from changes in the difficulty of mechanically liberating the metallic iron from the phosphorus bearing minerals.

Fractal and microscopic quantitative characterization of unclassified tailings flocs

A series of laboratory investigations are conducted to analyze the effect of flocculant type on the spatial morphology and microstructural characteristics of flocs during the flocculation and settling of tailings.Four flocculant types(i.e.,ZYZ,JYC-2,ZYD,and JYC-1)are considered in this study.The fractal characteristics and internal structures of tailings flocs with different flocculant types and settlement heights are analyzed by conducting scanning electron microscopy and X-ray micro-computed tomography scanning experiments based on the fractal theory.Results show that unclassified tailings flocs are irregular clusters with fractal characteristics,and the flocculation effect of the four flocculant types has the following trend:ZYZ>JYC-2>ZYD>JYC-1.The size and average grayscale value of tailings flocs decrease with the increase in settlement height.The average grayscale values at the top and bottom are 144 and 103,respectively.The settlement height remarkably affects the pore distribution pattern,as reflected in the constructed three-dimensional pore model of tailings flocs.The top part of flocs has relatively good penetration,whereas the bottom part of flocs has mostly dispersed pores.The number of pores increases exponentially with the increase in settlement height.By contrast,the size of pores initially increases and subsequently decreases with the increase in settlement height.

Experimental study on methane dissolved in surfactant-alkane system

A surfactant-polyalkane system is investigated using chemical reagents to dissolve methane and control coal seam gas from low-energy,high-efficiency,safety,and environmental protection perspectives.At different temperatures and pressures,a high-temperature and high-pressure reactor,gas chromatograph,and other related experimental equipment were used to perform methane dissolution experiments,and a single surfactant sodium oleate(NaOA)and n-hexane demonstrated superior results.The single-factor experiments of temperature,pressure,and NaOA addition were performed and fitted via a response surface analysis.The optimal conditions for methane solubility were as follows:temperature of 34C,pressure of 4.5 MPa,NaOA addition of 85 g/L,and time of 1 h.The optimal effect of the surfactant-polyalkane system in dissolving methane was achieved with 32.31 mL/100 mL.Meanwhile,the change in the surface structure of coal before and after washing with the system was compared using scanning electron microscopy.The results indicated that the gas after washing with the surfactant-polyalkane system dissolved,and the surface pore structure of the coal changed.Moreover,the specific surface area and pore size of the coal surface increased after washing.Hence,the desorption of gas from the coal surface into the system becomes easy,thereby reducing the gas content in the coal sample.

Similarity identification method on formational interfaces and application in general granite

An instrumented drilling system can be applied for the acquisition of drilling process parameters. The system can provide continuous and huge data for geotechnical engineering. However, due to the complexity of ground strata, the variation in the drilling parameters with stratigraphical characteristics is great and the correlation between likely comparable parameters is not high, which limits the use of conventional correlation approaches in this field. How to use the data for engineering and how to get a reasonable interpretation for the relationships among the drilling parameters, as well as between a drilling parameter and formational characteristics, become a technical choke point for the development and application of the instrumented drilling system. Based on similarity criteria, the extraction of sample data and characteristics, the pretreatment of data and feature matching algorithms have been analyzed and an approach of slope coefficient searching identification has been established. A case study was carried out for the similarity between the rotational speed of the drill bit, flushing pressure, and effective thrust force graphics in general weathered granite. The result shows that the similarity coefficients between the rotational speed of the drill bit, flushing pressure, and effective thrust force are 0.72 and 0.83, respectively. Although there are differences between the distances of the graphics, the curves of both rotational speed and flushing pressure agree with the effective thrust curve in shape, which provides a possible method for the identification of various formations by use of the similarity between feature drilling parameters.

Failure Patterns and Energy Analysis of Shaft Lining Concrete in Simulated Deep Underground Environments

The failure patterns and energy evolution of three types of shaft lining concrete subjected to static and dynamic loading were reported.The energy and damage characteristics of concrete were determined by means of a uniaxial hydraulic servo machine,acoustic emission (AE) equipment,a split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) and an ultrasonic wave analyser.The experimental results indicate that the confluence of multiple cracks forms a penetrating cross section in normal high-strength concrete (NHSC) under the condition of static loading,while the elastic energy that surges out at failure can cause tremendous damage when subjected to dynamic loading.A single crack was split into multiple propagation directions due to the presence of fibres in steel fibre-reinforced concrete (SFRC);adding fibre to concrete should be an effective way to dissipate energy.The non-steam-cured reactive powder concrete (NSC-RPC) designed in this paper can store and dissipate more energy than normal concrete,as NSC-RPC exhibits a strong ability to resist impact.Applying NSC-RPC to the long-service material of a shaft lining structure in deep underground engineering is quite effective.