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Virginia Tech

Numerical Modeling of Room-and-Pillar Coal Mine Ground Response

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Underground coal mine ground control persists as a unique challenge in rock mass engineering. Fall of roof and rib continue to present a hazard to underground personnel. Stability of underground openings is a prerequisite for successful underground coal mine workings. An adaptation of a civil engineering design standard for analyzing the stability of underground excavations for mining geometries is given here. The ground response curve--developed over seventy years ago for assessing tunnel stability--has significant implications for the design of underground excavations, but has seen little use in complex mining applications. The interaction between the small scale (pillar stress-strain) and the large scale (ground response curve) is studied. Further analysis between these two length scales is conducted to estimate the stress on pillars in a room-and-pillar coal mine. These studies are performed in FLAC3D by implementing a two-scale, two-step approach. This two-scale approach allows for the interaction between the small, pillar scale and the large, panel scale to be studied in a computationally efficient manner.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Ph. D.
Level thesis:degree_level
doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Mining Engineering
Department dc:contributor.department
Mining and Minerals Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2016

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Fahrman, Benjamin Paul
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Westman, Erik C.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Murphy, Michael M.
  • Karfakis, Mario G.
  • Ripepi, Nino S.

Subjects

dc:subject × 3

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:7278
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/64986

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Fahrman, Benjamin Paul. Numerical Modeling of Room-and-Pillar Coal Mine Ground Response. doctoral thesis, Virginia Tech, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/64986