Stability analysis and support requirements for haulage drift in the vicinity of mined stopes

Abstract

In this study, combined empirical, numerical, and in-situ monitoring methods were combined to carry out stability analyses and support design for a haulage drift subjected to mining activity. The rock mass quality of the haulage drift was characterized by the RMR, Q, and GSI, and the rock mass properties were calculated. The support requirements for haulage drift during mining were determined by rock mass classification systems. RS2 was used to analyze the plastic zone and displacement of the haulage drift during mining. After the stope was mined, the surrounding rock exhibited a butterfly plastic zone with an asymmetric distribution, and the roof damage was most severe near the stope side. Overall, the haulage drift tended to move in the stope direction, which is consistent with engineering expectations. The support systems determined using the empirical method were analyzed using RS2 and UNWEDGE software. The maximum plastic zone depth of the roof decreased from 4.2 to 2.01 m, and the safety factor of the unstable wedge block increased from 0 to 10.2 after support. In-situ drilling detection shows that the failure depth of the haulage drift roof is 2.37 m. Therefore, a combination of empirical, numerical, and in-situ monitoring methods can be effective for quantitative stability assessments and support design optimization of haulage drifts in the vicinity of mined stopes.

Keywords:

• Rock mass classification
• numerical modelling
• stability analysis
• support design
• haulage drifts
• mining

Acknowledgements

Great appreciation goes to the editorial board and the reviewers of this paper.

Author contributions

All the authors contributed to publishing this paper. Huaibin Li conceived and designed the research. Xingdong Zhao performed the field investigations and experiments, and presented the numerical simulation. Xinzhu Hua and Changxiang Wang wrote the original manuscript. Bibo Dai and Zujun Huang participated in the data analysis and manuscript modification.

Data availability statement

Data is available on request from the authors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Key Project of Natural Science Research in Universities of Anhui Province (KJ2021A0455), the State Key Laboratory of Safety and Health for Metal Mines (2021-JSKSSYS-02), Research Start-up Fund for Introduction of Talents of Anhui University of Science and Technology, NSFC-Shandong Joint Fund (Grant No. U1806208), and Research Funds for the Central Universities (N2001033).