Analysis of the dynamic behaviour of the hangingwall beam during a seismic event

In a deep-level gold mine planes of weakness oriented parallel to the reef allow the hangingwall to separate from adjacent rock strata. The hangingwall then acts as a separate beam supporting only its selfweight. Mining-induced near vertical shear fractures divide the hangingwall beam into distinct blocks of relatively intact material. The objective of this study is to investigate the response of the isolated hangingwall beam during a seismic event. The study is particularly concerned with the global, resonant behaviour of the hangingwall and local shear or crushing failure of the rock at the shear fractures is not considered. A finite element program is developed to compute the hangingwall response during seismicity. The response is normalised, thus permitting the response spectrum method to describe maximum hangingwall motions during a seismic event at various beam lengths. By comparing the response spectrum describing a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system with the spectrum of the hangingwall, it is evident that, although the hangingwall response spectrum is shifted to a higher frequency and velocity domain, the shapes of the two spectra are essentially the same. The frequency and velocity shift is calculated for 15 seismic events and empirical rules are developed to quantify the spectral shift for a wide range of event magnitudes. Unlike the spectrum describing hangingwall motions, the construction of a SDOF response spectrum is computationally cheap and is standard practice in earthquake engineering. By applying the empirical rules the seismologist can extrapolate the SDOF spectrum to estimate maximum hangingwall motions due to a seismic event and critical beam lengths which are prone to resonance. The effect on the response of the hangingwall supported by backfill consisting of dewatered and cemented tailings is evaluated. It is shown that a fill-to-face lag of less than 5m reduces hangingwall motions considerably. Further, at small strains the stiffer cemented tailings provide superior support than that offered by comparatively soft dewatered tailings. A chart is presented which correlates event magnitudes to critical beam lengths prone to resonance.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Year dc:date.issued

1992

Author dc:creator

• Daehnke, A

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Martin, JB

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8383

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/8383