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Interaction Between Workings

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Ground Engineering - Principles and Practices for Underground Coal Mining

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Abstract

Except in some very shallow situations, mining effects on the rock mass extend laterally beyond the boundaries of mine workings, decaying with distance. In all cases, mining effects also extend vertically into the roof and floor strata and, similarly, decay with distance. Hence, mining panels in the same seam and in different seams interact if they are sufficiently close. Assessment of this interaction requires consideration of the behaviour of excavations and pillar systems and of the properties of the surrounding strata.

This chapter applies the basic physical and mechanical principles of rock behaviour established in preceding chapters to consider firstly, interaction between workings in the same seam and, secondly, interaction between workings in multiseam situations. It has a particular focus on understanding and conceptualising how stress and deformation are distributed about mine workings. This forms the basis for designing mine workings in manners that not only avoid exposure to excessively high stress concentrations but also provide opportunities to exploit stress relief methods on both a local and regional scale.

Issues examined in this chapter include chain pillar design; stress notching in longwall gate-roads; stress notching between mining panels; optimising extraction direction in both single seam and multiseam mining situations; exploitation of sacrificial roadways and goaves to create stress relieved zones; superpositioning of bord and pillar workings; superpositioning of total extraction panels and panel entries in multiseam mining situations; optimising the sequence of extracting multiple seams; the impact of remnant pillars; and the potential for inrushes in multiseam mining situations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Manly, NSW, Australia

    J. M. Galvin

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Galvin, J.M. (2016). Interaction Between Workings. In: Ground Engineering - Principles and Practices for Underground Coal Mining . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25005-2_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25005-2_5

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-25003-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-25005-2

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