13.08.2013 Views

Rock Mechanics.pdf - Mining and Blasting

Rock Mechanics.pdf - Mining and Blasting

Rock Mechanics.pdf - Mining and Blasting

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

Figure 12.11 Key elements of longwall<br />

mining in hard rock (after Hamrin,<br />

2001).<br />

MINING METHODS AND METHOD SELECTION<br />

timber <strong>and</strong> concrete brick packs, are constructed in the void behind the face. Both<br />

support measures are designed to prevent the development, near the working area, of<br />

discontinuous behaviour in the stope peripheral rock.<br />

The principle of longwall mining in hard rock has been discussed in section 10.8.<br />

Considering an isolated longwall stope as a single slot, deflection <strong>and</strong> closure of the<br />

foot wall <strong>and</strong> hanging wall occur as mining advances. After contact is established<br />

between the stope wall rocks, the state of stress around the working area of a single<br />

stope is invariant during further stope advance. Stable ground conditions in the working<br />

area can then be maintained by emplacement of comparatively light but resilient<br />

support in the active mining domain.<br />

Longwall mining in coal seams follows a somewhat different principle from that<br />

employed in hard-rock mining. The operations <strong>and</strong> equipment applied in the method<br />

are illustrated in Figure 12.12. The coal is won, <strong>and</strong> the stope face advanced, by<br />

mechanically ploughing or shearing the coal seam by translation of the cutting device<br />

parallel to the stope face. This operation simultaneously loads the broken coal on to<br />

an armoured conveyor, by which it is transported to the roadway lying parallel to the<br />

direction of face advance. All face operations take place within a working domain<br />

protected by a set of hydraulic roof supports. Since the load capacity of the powered<br />

supports is always small compared with the overburden load, the local performance<br />

of roof rock adjacent to mining activity needs to be examined closely.<br />

The geomechanical phenomenology of longwall coal mining, illustrated in Figure<br />

12.12, reflects quite different modes of induced behaviour of the immediate roof rock<br />

of the seam <strong>and</strong> of the main roof stratum. The undermined immediate roof rock for the<br />

364

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!