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SYNOPSIS

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Coal is the world’s most abundant natural non-renewable energy source with
over 860 billion tonnes of proven coal reserves available worldwide (Anon,
2015). In comparison to proven oil and gas reserves, coal is estimated to last us
around 118 years at current rates of production out of which the major reserves
are available in the USA, Russia, China and India.

Coal is the primary source of energy and perhaps the largest contributor to the
industrial growth of the country. As energy is the lifeline of all economy, coal is
the dominant energy source in India. The total installed capacity for electricity
generation in the country has increased from 1,68,048 MW as on 31.03.2008 to
3,77,122 MW as on 31.03.2017, registering a compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) of 8.42% (Ministry of statistics and programme implementation,
2018).

The process of the technology in many branches of engineering is quite rapid in

recent years around the world, but in developing countries the technological
progress in underground coal mining remained mostly stagnant with traditional
systems, and only a few attempts were made to adopt/absorb recent trends
(Jayanthu et al., 2011). Although it could be attributed partly to availability and
adoptability of the modern mining machinery, but also mainly due to the
limitations of available strata control technology for the reserves situated in
more than 300m depth of cover. The resource position of coal shows nearly
37% within 300-700m depth and small portion (7%) below 600 depth of cover
(Jayanthu et al., 2011).

The nature of the overlying strata plays a significant role in the success of the
underground mining of the deep coal seams (below 300m).

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Roof falls is one of the threats for shallow depth but as the depth increases it
intensify in underground coal mining worldwide. For more than 50 years,
researchers and practitioners have assembled an opulence of technical
information on roof falls in an attempt to understand and control them.
However, many technical issues raised long ago are still being debated today
which demands further initiatives to address the issue and a conclusive solution
to the problem.

A comprehensive study on the roof stability is required to understand the

behavior of roof to identify the problems and its control suitable for Indian geo-
mining conditions for deep seated seams to increase the safety and at same time
to ensure maximum production.

2.0 LITERATURE SURVEY

Roof fall in underground mines are one of the most significant hazards for
miners. As the pillars are left behind to support the roof and prevent it from
collapse. Roof fall can threaten miners, damage equipment, disrupt ventilations
and block critical emergency escape routes (Nimaje and Sai, 2015).

In India a total no, of 278 fatal accidents took place due to roof fall from 1998
to 2010 in India and is listed in the table 1 below. Accidents due to fall of roof
occurred in the same proportion in bord and pillar development as well as
depillaring methods.

Table 1: Trend of fatal accidents in coal mines due to roof fall in India (Nimaji
and Sai, 2015).

Sl. No Year No. of roof falls

1 1998 35

2 1999 33

3 2000 27

4 2001 30

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5 2002 23

6 2003 18

7 2004 26
Table 1: Trend of fatal accidents in coal mines due to roof fall in
Sl. No Year No. of roof falls
India (Nimaji and Sai, 2015) Continued
8 2005 18

9 2006 13

10 2007 13

11 2008 14

12 2009 17

13 2010 11

An investigation of roof falls (rock pile and cavity) and adjacent entries may
reveal clues to the causes of the roof fall (Molinda 2003). Field investigation of
numerous roof falls has resulted in a list of common roof fall types.

The following is a list of observations and indications from roof fall

examination (Molinda and Mark, 2010):

• Rust-stained shear surfaces indicate water inflow which may have weakened
the roof.

• Roof shears or slickensides may indicate severed roof beams.

• Small rock fragments (<12 in across) in the rock fall pile may indicate rock
failure between bolts.

• Mud bands or rider coals at the top of flat-topped falls may indicate weak
zones that separated above anchorage.

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• Cutters leading into the roof fall may have initiated roof failure due to roof
compression.

• Long, running, and linear trends in roof falls may indicate a poor mining
orientation with respect to the local horizontal stress regime.

2.1 PARAMETERS CONTRIBUTING TO THE ROOF FALL DURING

DEPILLARING METHOD.

The parameters contributing to the roof falls during depillaring phase are:

a) Geological parameters

b) Design parameters

c) Operational parameters

2.1.1 GEOLOGICAL PARAMETERS:

2.1.1.1 DEPTH OF COVER

Depth as one of the most important technical and mining factors in providing
safe stability levels for any underground mine working (M Toderas,2015).

It deals with subsurface location depth as one of the most important technical
and mining factors in providing safe stability levels for any underground mine
working. With increasing depth, takes place a change of mechanical properties
of rocks, their transition into a boundary state, which has a special value and
influence in relation to the long-term stability of the mine workings, both
vertical and horizontal, in the sense that the mining pressure manifests itself
differently and there is the problem of choosing the right support solution; also,
it is enhanced the natural and secondary stress state and convergences became
strong functions of depth.

2.1.1.2 ROCK MASS RATING

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The rock mass rating (RMR) is a geo-mechanical classification system of rocks,

developed by Z.T Bieniawski (Bieniawski, 1986) between 1972 and 1973. It
combines the most significant geologic parameters of influence and represents
them with one overall comprehensive index of rock mass quality, which is used
for the design and construction of excavation in rock, such as tunnels, mines,
slopes and foundations with the classification given below in table 2.
Table 2: Classification table for RMR system

RMR Rock Quality

0-20 Very Poor

21-40 Poor

41-60 Fair

61-80 Good

81-100 Very good

2.1.1.3 FLOOR ROOF QUALITY

Floor, pillar and roof treat as a system in bord and pillar mines. It plays an
important role. When the floor doesn’t have suitable quality, pillars penetrate
into the floor, which leads to roof convergence and ultimately to failure.

2.1.1.4 GROUND WATER

The presence of groundwater resource and strata containing water above the
extracting panel is one of the effective parameters of roof instability. If the roof
is dry, the roof fall is not probable, if the roof is wet, the probability of roof fall
is low, if dripping occurs, the probability is high, and if flow of water is steady,
then the probability is extreme (Ghasemi et al.,2012).

2.1.1.5 OVERLYING STRATA

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The thin falls classified as skin falls which accounted for approximately 70% of
the fatalities were predominantly caused by ineffective joint support and
excessive bolt spacing (Merwe, 2001).

2.1.1.6 MULTIPLE-SEAM INTERACTION

In many coal fiends, coal seams are formed close to each other and as series
separated by rock strata (interburden). The mining of two adjacent seams is
called multiple-seam mining and the ground control problems caused by this
mining method are called multiple seam interaction. Ground stability is the
greatest hazard due to multiple seam interaction (Ghasemi et al., 2012).

2.1.2 DESIGN PARAMETERS

2.1.2.1 PANEL WIDTH
Panel width affects abutment loads distribution and over burden caving
mechanism. Moreover, with increase of panel width, the height of tensile zone
developed in the overburden increases, which can cause violent failure and
eventually full caving of overburden (Ghasemi et al., 2012). Width to depth
ration panels is divided into three categories:
 Sub critical(P/H<2tan b)
 Critical (P/H=2 tan b)
 Super-critical (P/H>2tan b)
Where, P is the panel width, H is the panel depth and b is the abutment
angle.

2.1.2.2 PANEL UNIFORMITY

Panel shape and panel’s pillars shape and size are important in panel uniformity.
Because irregular panel shapes make pillar lines uneven during retreat mining
and this causes unpredictable an uncontrollable roof falls. Moreover, panel
development consisting uniformly sized pillars is recommended strongly,

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because non-uniform and unequal sized pillars cause non-uniform stress

distribution and therefore decrease the roof stability (Ghasemi et al., 2010).

2.1.2.3 ENTRY WIDTH

One of the most important methods of decreasing the roof instability at
intersections is that entries creating an intersection should be mined to the
minimum possible width, in order to make the operation of extraction safe and
the haulage equipment possible(Ghasemi et al., 2012). Regarding the equipment
which are used in room and pillar mines now a-days (continuous miner, shuttle
car and LHD), the proper width of entries is about 4.5 to 5m and also at width
more than 7m, roof fall and support problems are probable based on researches
done( Jeffrey,2002).

2.1.2.4 PANEL DESIGN

Proper pillar design has a significant role in roof stability. Stability factor
depends on depth of cover, and roof quality.

2.1.2.5 ROOF BOLTING

Experimentally, installation of one roof bolt in one square meters of roof (bolt
density = 1) in coal mine entries seems to be safe but this value is not adequate
at intersection because intersections are subjected to abutment loads during
retreat mining, and therefore require extra roof bolting. Based on bolt density,
the probability of roof fall risk at intersections (Ghasemi et al., 2012) is divided
into three categories:
 High, when bolt density is less than 1
 Moderate, when bolt density is between 1 and 1.5
 Low, when bolt density is more than 1.5

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2.1.3 OPERATIONAL PARAMETERS:

2.1.3.1 PANEL AGE
As time passes, the roof of mine becomes weaker. Supplemental bolting is often
required, particularly in intersections, to prepare old panels for retreat mining. If
the panel age is less than one year, no additional support is needed and the
probability of roof fall is low. But in older panels, the probability of roof fall
increases (Ghasemi et al., 2012).
2.1.3.2 SUPPLEMENTAL SUPPORT
Supplemental roof support is necessary in depillaring phase to increase the
safety and minimize the risk of injury from roof falls. Timber posts and mobile
roof supports (MRSs) provide supplemental support for retreat mining.
Nowadays, using MRS is recommended strongly because using timber posts as
pillar line supports has many disadvantages and the most important is that
timber posts are passive supports and roof convergence would be small
(Ghasemi et al., 2012).

2.1.3.3 CUT SEQUENCE

Mines employ a wide variety of cut sequences to recover pillars and most of
them can be divided into three categories
 Left– right (also called Christmas tree or twinning) in which cuts are taken
on both sides of the entry and it does not require place changes and bolting
 Outside lift in which cuts are taken on just one side and similar to left–right,
it does not place changes and bolting
 Cut sequences that require cuts to be bolted, these methods are usually used
when the pillars are so large that they must be split before they are fully
recovered. Split-and-fender and pocket-and-wing are two common types of
these methods (Ghasemi et al., 2012).

2.2 DIFFERENT METHODS OF DETERMINING ROOF FALL:

2.2.1 RISK ASSESSMENT METHODS

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Risk assessment methods provide a systematic approach to identifying and

characterizing risks, especially those associated with low-probability, high-
consequence events like roof falls. The first step in utilizing a roof fall risk
assessment method requires identification of the potential roof fall hazards.
Because local geologic, stress, and mining conditions interact to create varying
roof conditions, commodity specific or activity based hazard assessment
techniques and associated risk analysis techniques are needed to locate potential
risk within workplaces throughout the mine. Many hazard assessment
techniques generally can be classified into three groups: 1) hazard maps, 2)
rock mass classification systems, and 3) monitoring data.

2.2.1.1 Hazard Maps

Hazard maps typically focus on specific geologic or rock properties and are
generally represented in some fashion on a mine map. The many kinds of
hazard maps that have been developed provide a powerful technique to identify
roof fall hazards (Moebs, 1977; Lagather, 1977; Hylbert, 1978; Iannacchione,
1981; Chase et al., 2006). However, most hazard maps don’t determine the
probability of occurrence for roof falls. This is a fundamental requirement for
any roof fall risk assessment method.

2.2.1.2 Rock Mass Classification Systems

Rock mass classification systems (RMCS) typically focus on determining the
relative structural strength of local geologic sequences. Bieniawski (1989) states
that the role of rock mass classification is to “consider the engineering
properties of both intact rock and the rock mass.” Early rock mass classification
consisted of Terzaghi’s rock load classification (1946) and Deere and Deere’s
(1988) Rock Quality Designation (RQD). Bieniawski (1973) developed the
Rock Mass Rating (RMR) that incorporated six parameters to classify a rock
mass. Around the same time Barton et al. (1974) developed the Q-system that
also incorporated six parameters to classify a rock mass given in table 3.

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Table 3: Important parameters of three popular rock mass classification systems.

SYSTEMS IMPORTANT PARAMETERS

Unconfined compressive strength
Rock Quality Designation
Rock Mass Rating Spacing of Discontinuities
Conditions of Discontinuities
Groundwater Conditions
Orientation of discontinuities

Table 3: Important parameters of three popular rock mass classification systems continued.
Rock Quality Designation
Number of Joint sets
Roughness of alterations or filling along the weakest
Q-System joint
Degree of alteration or filling along the weakest joint
Water Inflow
Stress Condition
Unit rating for distinct rock intervals (cohesion,
roughness)
Intensity of discontinuities (spacing , persistence)
Coal Mine Roof Rating Number of discontinuities sets
Unconfined compressive strength of Point Load Index
Moisture sensitivity

2.2.1.3 Monitoring Data

Monitoring data has been used to establish trends that anticipate or forecast
roof falls and represents the third category of hazard assessment techniques.
Maleki and McVey (1988) presented a comprehensive analysis of instruments
used to monitor roof deformations associated with unstable roof conditions
Stewart and Spottiswoode (1996) developed a means to determine seismic risk
of small-scale earthquake-like events associated with deep-level mining in
South Africa. The seismic risk is calculated from a number of different
categories derived from the micro seismic monitoring data collected at the
mining operation.

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2.2.2 NUMERICAL MODELLING

Numerical modeling can assist the geotechnical engineer in designing
underground excavations and support systems. If extensive geological and
geotechnical data are available, then comprehensive predictions of
deformations, stability and support loads can be made by numerical stress
analyses. If not, the model can still be used to perform parametric studies,
providing insight into the possible range of responses of a system, given the
likely ranges for the various parameters. This understanding of the key
parameters can then help set priorities for site investigation and material testing,
which in turn will produce data that are used in design.
Sahebi and Jalalifar (2017) presented an analysis in the underground coal mine
roadways to determine the support that needs to be used for the stability of the
roof. The results gathered from the field investigation and the geo-mechanical
properties of rocks, were determined in the laboratory and indicate that the rock
masses of this area are weak. So, the excavated roadways need to have suitable
support. For this purpose, the roadways were modeled with flac-2D software.
The Finite Difference Method (FDM) models were calibrated to study the
interaction between rock mass and support. After modelling these road ways in
FLAC2D software the results achieved from this model showed that
displacements of around the roadways are high and factor of safety is low. After
installation of proper support, it was observed that critical strain values on
roadway walls and roof were less than the permitted values, which
demonstrated the roadway stability.

3.0 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Underground coal mining industries is breaking down slowly. Although, in

some countries underground coal mines are being operated, their numbers are

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less and decreasing. But the future of coal production is dependent on deep
mining (Raja et al., 2018).

Roof fall is one of the most significant hazards in a mine which may lead to Air
blast, loss of life, machineries, disruption of ventilation and other consequences.
The nature of the overlying strata plays a significant role in the success of the
underground mining of the deep coal seams. Excessive roof falls, bumps, high
spalling or crushing of natural supports, floor heaving, pillar squeezing and
collapse, etc. are the most like problems in Bord and pillar mining. It was found
that the dominant cause of roof falls were due to inefficient support design
(Robertson and Hinshaw, 2003).

The Change in seismic wave propagation properties of roof strata changes in

velocity, frequency, amplitude, dynamic Young modulus, and dynamic
Poisson's ratio were related to roof deformation, fracturing, and support
requirements (Maleki et al., 1993).

These accident causes disability, injury or fatality to the workers in a

detrimental way as well as the mining company will also have direct effects due
to the downtimes, interruptions in the mining operations, equipment
breakdowns. The stability of roof is an important factor in underground coal
mines; hence studies on the effect of roof stability during depillaring
considering physio-mechanical properties will be carried out.

4.0 OBJECTIVE

Considering the above literature survey and from problem statement the main
objective of the study is:

 To determine the effect of roof stability during depillaring in an

underground coal mine.

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5.0 METHODOLOGY

A flow chart of the methodology is show below:

Identification of Problem

Literature Survey

Selection of Parameters

Numerical Modelling

Result and Analysis

Conclusion

Recommendation

Figure 1: Proposed plan of study

The above objectives could only be reached if acted upon a planned

approach.

Literature Survey: All the past research works on the stability in underground
coal mines, carried out by researchers, academicians and scientists etc., related
to the recent cases were reviewed.

Selection of Parameters: All the parameters which are found to be affecting

the roof stability are thoroughly studied and most affecting parameters are
selected.

Numerical Modelling: A model, using FEM method of Numerical Modelling

is prepared to simulate the underground condition and depillaring sequence is
adopted.

Analysis of result will be done and based on the results obtained, the effect of
roof on coal pillars is studied.

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Bieniawski, Z. T. (1989). Engineering rock mass classifications: a complete

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Chase, F. E., Newman, D., & Rusnak, J. (2006). Coal mine geology in the US
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Lagather, R. B. (1977). Guide to Geologic Features Affecting Coal Mine Roof.

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