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ABSTRACT
Ground support performance is critical to the safe and economical extraction of ore. This is
particularly important for mass mining extractions at great depth, which are currently being
considered by a large number of mining companies worldwide. As the in situ stresses concentrate
around critical excavations, failure occurs at the excavation boundaries and ground support is
required for the excavations to remain safe and accessible for their intended lifespan. Ground
support consists of reinforcing elements that are installed within the rock mass to modify its
internal behaviour (generally to within one excavation radius) and surface support elements that
are installed at the exposed boundaries to retain the failed pieces of rock. For surface support to be
effective, the loadings need to be transferred to the reinforcing elements; however, the combined
performance of rock bolts and mesh is poorly understood in terms of the energy dissipation capacity
available for a typical ground support scheme implemented at most mass mining operations.
Over the last 15 years or so, a large number of large-scale laboratory experiments have been
completed at the Western Australian School of Mines (WASM) Dynamic Test Facility for
reinforcement systems and surface support systems loaded separately. The objective of more
recent testing has been to establish the combined energy dissipation capacity of typical and
enhanced reinforcement systems combined with mesh surface support. Total energy dissipation
has been separated into energy dissipation attributable to the reinforcement and to the mesh. The
results of the tests are presented and compared with the existing WASM design demand and
capacity guidelines.
INTRODUCTION
The trend for underground mines is to progress to ever energy dissipation was achieved at relatively low forces and
increasing depths to access orebodies. At these greater depths excessive displacements. For example, Figure 1 conceptually
and higher stresses, the potential increases for large rock mass shows the difference between two reinforcement force-
displacements associated with immediate rebound following displacement responses with the same energy dissipation.
removal of rock to create an opening, followed by long-term In the latter case, ground support and broken rock need to
creep due to the rheology of the rock mass materials and be removed and a new ground support scheme installed to
discontinuities. In addition, the higher stresses increase the enable resumption of access.
potential for sudden rock failure accompanied by energy While most developments in recent years have been directed
release; accordingly, the ground support is required to have towards improved reinforcement systems, there have been
different characteristics compared with those that have
been successfully used for many years at shallower depths.
In particular, the displacement capacity needs to exceed,
firstly, the rock mass displacements due to rebound following
installation and ongoing creep with time and, secondly, the
additional displacement demand following a violent failure
event to dissipate the energy released from the rock mass.
The ability to dissipate energy is also a function of the force
capacity of the installed ground support.
Increasingly, over the last decade or so, reinforcement
systems have been developed with increased displacement
capacities without severe reductions in force capacities. This
has resulted in high energy dissipation capacity at moderate FIG 1 – Examples of high energy dissipation force-displacement
displacements. Prior to the development of these systems, high responses with acceptable and excessive displacements.
1. Professor of Mining Geomechanics, Western Australian School of Mines, CRCMining, Curtin University, Kalgoorlie WA 6430. Email: e.villaescusa@curtin.edu.au
2. Laboratory Assistant, Western Australian School of Mines, Curtin University, Kalgoorlie WA 6430. Email: u.zoysa@curtin.edu.au
3. MAusIMM(CP), Principal, MineGeoTech Pty Ltd, Kalgoorlie WA 6430. Email: johnplayer@minegeotech.com.au
4. MAusIMM, Principal, Alan Thompson Geotechnology Pty Ltd, Esperance WA 6450. Email: alan@atgeotech.com.au
SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION ON MASS MINING / SYDNEY, NSW, 9–11 MAY 2016 789
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limited efforts towards improving surface support systems On the other hand, shotcrete is a stiff material with
such as steel wire mesh and shotcrete. With regards to mesh, it inherently low tensile strength and the potential to crush
inherently has a relatively large displacement capacity due to and fail violently, similarly to rock when subjected to
the characteristics of the restraint provided by reinforcement high compressive stresses. Current practice is to use steel
and its response to lateral loading. However, the performance or synthetic fibres to improve the ductility of shotcrete.
However, many observations (eg Figure 3) suggest that
of mesh can be improved by a transition from relatively stiff,
fibres often do little to improve the performance of shotcrete
welded and low-strength steel wire mesh sheets to articulated
following the formation of tensile cracks and cannot prevent
rolls of woven (chain link), high-strength steel wire mesh as spalling as shown in Figure 4. It is apparent that continuous
shown in Figure 2 (Villaescusa et al, 2012). internal reinforcement (mesh) is required to improve the
post-cracking performance of shotcrete. Techniques have
been developed for civil infrastructure tunnels to reduce the
stiffness of shotcrete in compression and have proven to be
effective in preventing crushing failure in highly deformable
ground. These techniques have yet to be trialled in deep,
highly stressed mine openings.
An important function of ground support is the use of
both internal reinforcement and surface support. Surface
support is required to resist detachment of failed rock from
a rock mass. Reinforcement serves two purposes. Firstly, it
improves the rock mass properties by providing both tensile
and shear resistance across discontinuities in the rock and,
secondly, it attempts to sustain the forces transmitted from
the surface support.
The Western Australian School of Mines (WASM), located in
FIG 2 – Examples of force-displacement responses for welded Kalgoorlie, commenced the development and commissioning
wire mesh and high tensile strength wire woven mesh. of a facility for dynamic testing of ground support systems
790 SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION ON MASS MINING / SYDNEY, NSW, 9–11 MAY 2016
DYNAMIC TESTING OF COMBINED ROCK BOLT AND MESH SCHEMES
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The grout filled steel pipe is then taken to a mine site and
secured firmly in a large diameter borehole. A jumbo is then
used to drill the required borehole diameter and install bolts
using standard practices. This methodology has been used to
install friction rock stabilisers (eg split tube or expanded tubes)
and bolts encapsulated by spinning through resin cartridges.
The initial stage consists of grouting of the simulated
boreholes. Centralisers (fixed to the threaded bars) were used
to locate the rock bolts inside a steel pipe prior to a grouting
process. Toe grout connections were fixed on to the pipe ends
with duct tape. A number of pipes were placed on two wooden
blocks and fixed vertically near the collar end as shown in
Figure 7. A 0.4 water/cement ratio grout was pumped from
the collars to the tops of the pipes. After the pipes were
completely filled with grout, the ends of the plastic pipes
were blocked to prevent leaking of grout. Grouted simulated
borehole samples were cured for 28 days inside the WASM FIG 8 – Fixing of the mesh on to the frame.
Dynamic Test Facility prior to testing.
792 SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION ON MASS MINING / SYDNEY, NSW, 9–11 MAY 2016
DYNAMIC TESTING OF COMBINED ROCK BOLT AND MESH SCHEMES
mass. The pipe was then bolted onto the beam above the anchor were fixed onto the drop beam and to the loading mass. The
load cells. A load transfer ring was welded onto the pipe. high speed video camera (fixed onto a tripod) was placed on
Four ropes were attached to the system as shown in the floor. The high speed video camera was adjusted to the
Figure 10. The beam was then lifted and placed on top of the correct aperture and zoomed to the centre plane of the pit
mesh and lowered onto the mesh frame. The collar pipe was with use of a calibrated board.
positioned through a centralised curved plate while the mesh NI-SC2043SG board cables for the drop beam and the mesh
frame threads were positioned through the drop beam holes. frame were connected and checked for correct operation
These two steps were performed simultaneously. using the data acquisition software. The laser triggering
The curved plate was fixed onto the load mass and to the process was checked manually by blocking the laser beam.
mesh. The frame threads were fixed onto the drop beam with In the final stage, the release hook was attached to the crane
the load cells. The total system (drop beam + mesh frame + and the system raised to the required height above the impact
reinforcement system + mass) was then lifted with the crane surface on the buffer pistons.
and positioned at the drop pit. The system was lowered in
the drop pit until the complete test configuration rested on Test procedure
the buffers. Figure 5 shows the test set-up immediately prior to testing. The
The collar load cell was installed between the plate and gantry crane is used to lift the assembly of test components to
the nut as shown in Figure 11. The nut was rotated with a the required height and then the assembly is released from a
torque wrench and the bar tensioned to approximately remotely operated hook with shock absorber.
20 kN. A dome washer was used between a flat washer and
the plate. After installing the surface hardware, the nut was Data analysis
covered with black tape and white crosses were drawn on it. A key component of the WASM Dynamic Test Facility is the
These targets were used to track the collar movement of the data processing software that has been developed in house.
reinforcement in the video data analysis process. The software used to analyse reinforcement system testing was
described in detail by Thompson, Player and Villaescusa (2004).
Installation of remaining instrumentation Subsequently, the software has been enhanced to analyse
The next step of the procedure was installation of the data from tests on support (ie mesh or shotcrete) and tests on
instrumentation to the test components. The accelerometers combined schemes of reinforcement and support. The software
is used to analyse and display the responses (ie displacement,
velocity and acceleration) of all the instrumentation with time.
The data analysis methodology consists of three main stages:
1. reviewing and selecting data for analysis
2. filtering of the selected data
3. analysis of the filtered data over a selected time interval.
This methodology has been incorporated into the
software developed using the Microsoft® Visual Basic 6.0
programming language.
TESTING RESULTS
Test programs
Two separate test programs involving reinforcement systems
combined with mesh panels are summarised in Table 1 and
FIG 10 – Fixing of the beam on to the mesh frame. Table 2 respectively. The first reinforcement and mesh scheme
Star plate
Dome washer
Dome washer
Collar load cell Flat washers Collar load cell
Targets Nut
Rock bolt
Not in scale
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TABLE 1
Sample specifications – program 1.
Sample No Reinforcement system Bar length (mm) Bar diameter Decoupled Support system Wire diameter
(mm) length (mm) (mm)
195 Fully encapsulated threaded bar 2400 20 0 GEOBRUGG G80–4
196 Fully encapsulated threaded bar 2400 20 0 GEOBRUGG G80–4
197 Fully encapsulated threaded bar 2400 20 0 Weld mesh 5.6
198 Fully encapsulated threaded bar 2400 20 0 Weld mesh 5.6
199 Decoupled Posimix 2400 20 1000 Weld mesh 5.6
200 Decoupled Posimix 2400 20 1000 GEOBRUGG G80–4
201 Decoupled Posimix 2400 20 1000 GEOBRUGG G80–4
202 Decoupled Posimix 2400 20 1000 Weld mesh 5.6
TABLE 2
Sample specifications – program 2.
Sample No Reinforcement system Bar length (mm) Bar diameter Decoupled Support system Wire diameter
(mm) length (mm) (mm)
231 DSI Posimix 3000 20 1400 CODELCO 4
232 DSI Posimix 3000 20 1400 CODELCO 4
233 DSI Posimix 3000 20 1400 CODELCO 5
234 DSI Posimix 3000 20 1400 CODELCO 5
235 DSI Posimix 3000 20 1400 GEOBRUGG G80–4
236 DSI Posimix 3000 20 1400 GEOBRUGG G80–4
test program involved two different types of reinforcement reinforcement system, support system and buffers) and the
systems; namely: residual kinetic energy of the loading mass, the beam and the
1. fully coupled cement encapsulated 20 mm diameter mesh frame, divided by the input energy (kinetic energy of the
threaded bar entire system at impact plus the change in potential energy).
2. cement encapsulated (1000 mm decoupled length) 20 mm The energy balance for a test is calculated at the rupture
diameter threaded bar.
point or when the relative velocity between the loading mass
These were used in combination with two different types of and the drop beam becomes zero. The end point for the test
mesh support systems; namely:
#195 shown in Figure 12 was defined at 47.6 ms, which was
1. TECCO G80 chain link mesh, 4 mm wire diameter the reinforcement rupture point. The red vertical line is the
2. galvanised welded wire mesh, 5.6 mm wire diameter. end of the test. The energy balance for this test is 96.5 per cent
The second reinforcement and mesh scheme test program which is considered to be an excellent reconciliation.
involved DSI Posimix 20 mm diameter bar, 3 m long having
a 1.4 m decoupled length between the toe and collar. Three TABLE 3
types of chain link mesh support were used; namely:
Test program loading specifications.
1. Codelco chain link mesh, 4 mm wire diameter
2. Codelco chain link mesh, 5 mm wire diameter Test ID Impact Total loading Initial input
3. TECCO G80 chain link mesh, 4 mm wire diameter. velocity (m/s) mass (kg) energy (kJ)
The Codelco mesh is used at the El Teniente Mine owned 195 5.8 2158 36.6
by Codelco Chile. The TECCO G80 chain link mesh is
196 6 1778 32
a proprietary product of Geobrugg, a company with
headquarters in Switzerland. 197 5.4 1869 27
Program 1
The input specifications (mass and impact velocity) for the 198 5.8 2248 38.7
two test programs are summarised in Table 3. 199 6.8 2248 53.2
kinetic energy of the components while the curves below the 234 7.1 2158 54.9
line represent energy dissipated. An energy balance is used 235 7.3 2158 57.5
to assess the results. Energy balance is defined as the sum
236 7 2158 52.8
of dissipated energy (the sum of energy dissipated by the
794 SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION ON MASS MINING / SYDNEY, NSW, 9–11 MAY 2016
DYNAMIC TESTING OF COMBINED ROCK BOLT AND MESH SCHEMES
TABLE 4
Summary of program 1.
TABLE 5
Summary of program 2.
SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION ON MASS MINING / SYDNEY, NSW, 9–11 MAY 2016 795
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TABLE 6
Summary of support system responses.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Dynamic loading tests on combined reinforcement and mesh
ground support schemes have been described in detail and
the results presented. The tests are believed to be the first
FIG 13 – Dynamic force–time responses of combined systems. which have been able to separate the individual responses
of the reinforcement and mesh from the overall responses
maximum displacement and the peak dynamic force for of the ground support scheme. This is an important feature
each test. The ruptured systems are highlighted in red and of the WASM Dynamic Test Facility as it clearly indicates
the systems that survived are in green for clear identification. the importance of matching the response stiffness of the
Reinforcement that failed by pulling out is marked in purple. reinforcement and mesh. This was demonstrated by the
survival of lower stiffness responses to loading of decoupled
APPLICATION OF RESULTS TO WA SCHOOL OF bar compared with the stiff responses of fully coupled bars.
MINES DESIGN METHODOLOGY The results have been applied to a new design methodology
The energy dissipated in relation to the deformation at failure relating the measured dynamic performance of ground
for each of the combined systems is presented in Figure 17. support schemes to the expected rock mass demand resulting
796 SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION ON MASS MINING / SYDNEY, NSW, 9–11 MAY 2016
DYNAMIC TESTING OF COMBINED ROCK BOLT AND MESH SCHEMES
TABLE 8
Typical rock mass demand for ground support design.
mesh_#235
3m 550MPa 20mm DSI Posimix, 1.4m
250 decoupled_G80‐4 chainlink
mesh_#236 REFERENCES
200 De Zoysa, A U, 2015. Dynamic testing of mesh and rock bolt support
150
systems, MPhil thesis (unpublished), Western Australian School
of Mines, Curtin University, Kalgoorlie.
100
Player, J R, 2012. Dynamic testing of rock reinforcement systems, PhD
50 thesis (unpublished), Western Australian School of Mines, Curtin
University, Kalgoorlie.
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150
Player, J R, Thompson, A G and Villaescusa, E, 2004. Dynamic testing
Time (ms)
of rock reinforcement using the momentum transfer concept, in
FIG 16 – Dynamic force–time responses of 1.4 m Proceedings Ground Support in Mining and Underground Construction
decoupled DSI Posimix (program 2). (eds: E Villaescusa and Y Potvin), pp 327–340 (Balkema: Leiden).
TABLE 7
Energy dissipated by the combined schemes.
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