Strength Assessments of Concrete-Filled Steel Tubular Support of Soft Rock Roadway

Abstract

Compared with I-shaped and U-shaped supports in soft rock roadway, concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) support, as a new supporting form, has stronger bearing capacity with reasonable price. So it is becoming more and more popular in roadway supporting of coal mine in China. In this article, the surrounding rock in soft rock roadway was classified into three different types: hard rock in deep coal mine, soft surrounding rock, extremely soft surrounding rock. And, according to the characteristics of deformation failure of the CFST support and the surrounding rock in the industrial tests, three different strength assessments, including assessment of axial compressive strength, assessment of lateral flexural performance, assessment of hardening rate of core concrete, were proposed through mechanical analysis and laboratory tests for the three different types of the surrounding rock, respectively. Moreover, aimed to insufficient flexural strength of the support or low hardening rate of the core concrete in some of the roadway supporting, strengthening lateral flexural performance or making early strength concrete was necessary for the above unfavorable situations. The laboratory test results showed that the ultimate bearing capacity for the CFST support with φ194*8mm of steel tube reinforced by φ38mm round steel was 31% greater than that of the unreinforced one, 177% greater than that of the U-shaped one with equivalent weight per unit length.