Abstract
Rock pillars can be defined as the in-situ rock between two or more underground openings. However, one aspect that is seldom considered in analysis of hard rock pillars, and indirectly in synthetic rock mass models to determine rock mass strength, is the actual stress level and stress path imposed on the pillar due to the excavation sequence and the location of the pillars within the mine lay out. In this paper we propose to use numerical stress analysis to determine how stresses vary across the excavated pillars in a typical room-and-pillar mine lay out, and thus generate a spatially variable determination of pillar stability. Because of the computational difficulty associated with hybrid modelling of realistic discrete fracture networks, synthetic rock mass modelling is commonly carried out using a 2D approach. By comparing 3D and 2D results for selected cross-sections across, we believe the results of the analysis will provide the opportunity to better constrain the stability implications of a 2D approach to pillar design and synthetic rock mass modelling.
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