• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.585-597
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• 2013

In this study, in order to evaluate stability of the room-and-pillar underground structure, a series of preliminary numerical analyses were performed. Design concept and procedure of an underground structure for obtaining a space are proposed, which should be different from structural design for the room-and-pillar in mine. With assumed material properties, a series of numerical analyses were performed by varying size ratios of room and pillar and then the failure modes and location at yielding initiation were investigated. From the results, relationship between the ratio of pillar width to the roof span (w/s) and overburden pressure at failure initiation shows a relatively linear relation, and the effect of w/s on structural stability is much more critical than the ratio of pillar width and height (w/H) which is a crucial parameter in design of the room-and-pillar mining. It means that roof tensile failure and shear failure at shoulder and pillar are necessary to be considered together for confirming overall structural stability of the room-and-pillar structure, rather than considering the pillar stability only in mining. Failure modes and location at failure initiation were varied with respect to the ratio of room and pillar widths. Therefore, it is necessary to simultaneously consider stability of both roof span and pillar for design of underground structure by the room-and-pillar method.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.675-683
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• 2015

The room-and-pillar construction method for underground space is adopted from the room-and-pillar mining method which is one of the most popular underground mining method in the world. Drainage system in the room-and-pillar underground construction method can be similar with the concept of single shell in tunnel because additional reinforcement except the TSL (thin spray-on liner) is not applied in the room-and-pillar construction method. That is, to decrease groundwater level and maintain safety in tunnel, the drainage pin hole inside lining (shotcrete) can be used. However, if total amount of outflow in the underground structure is relatively small or groundwater is not detected, such drainage system will not be useful and cause additional construction cost. In this study, outflow of conventional tunnels in South Korea was investigated and the criteria to determine whether the drainage pin hole is effective was suggested. And the guided drainage system was suggested when drainage pin hole was not applied in the room-and-pillar construction method.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.335-343
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• 2014

Room-and-pillar mining method is one of the most popular underground mining method in the world. If the room-and-pillar mining method is able to be adopted in civil works, it would be highly probable to reduce underground construction costs and to expand a underground structure in use. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the design procedure of unsupported rock pillars which are indispensable to ensure the stability of a room-and-pillar underground structure. Parametric studies on their key design parameters are also carried out for 125 different kinds of design conditions. From the study, the width of a rock pillar is found to show a linear relationship with its corresponding safety factor. The safety factor of a unsupported rock pillar decreased drastically like a negative exponential function as the ratio of room width to pillar width increases in the same rock strength condition. Based on the parametric studies, a design chart to simply evaluate the geometric design parameters of a unsupported rock pillar satisfying a design safety factor is also proposed in this study.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Rock Mechanics Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.171-180
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• 2004

Underground mining causes surface subsidence long after the mining operation had been ceased. Surface subsidence can be in the form of saucer-shaped depression or collapsed chimneys or sinkholes. Sinkhole formations are predominant over shallow-depth room and pillar mines having weak overburden strata. In this study, occurrences of sinkholes due to mining activity are assessed based on local geological conditions and mining parameters using fuzzy reasoning techniques. All input and output parameters are represented with linguistic hedges. Numerous fuzzy rules are developed to relate sinkhole occurrences with input parameters using fuzzy relational matrix. Based on the combined fuzzy rules, possibility of sinkhole occurrences can be ascertained once the geological and mining parameters of any area are known.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.24 no.A
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• pp.139-155
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• 2004

A room and pillar mining method has been adopting at the Jeungsun limestone mine. To check stability of pillar with multiple and irregular openings, the size, shape and spacing of rib pillar were first designed using some empirical suggestions. The Finite Difference Method(FDM)was used to analyze the pillar stability. Twelve different cases with the variation of K(horizontal/vertical stress)values, different height and different spacing of pillar were used in this study. Finally Mohr-Coulomb criterion was adopted to calculate the safety factors. Horizontal and vertical displacement, maximum and minimum principal stresses, range of plastic zone and safety factors were calculated at each case. As a result of analysis, the size of one block is 160m long, 70m wide, 40m high with 20m wide rib pillar and 20m square column pillar. The overall recovery at this case can be estimated about 40%.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.35-39
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• 2016

Influence of rock fall from upper-level roofs to lower-level roofs and pillars at a multi layered room and pillar mine was numerically simulated by using AUTODYN. The analysis results showed that the maximum displacement and stress in the roof of the lower-level stope are respectively 0.001 mm and 36 MPa, and those in the pillars of the lower-level stope are 0.0003 mm and 3 MPa. The maximum damage levels in the roof and pillar of the lower-level stope were evaluated to be about 0.03 when a half of the roof rock of the upper-level stope was assumed to be fallen to the floor.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.161-171
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• 2017

Demand for high-grade limestone is increasing, but the production in the domestic mines has been limited due to the lack of systematic development plans and efforts to develop mining technology to improve the recovery ratio, transition to high-cost underground mining due to increasing social awareness of environmental protection, and the smallness of the domestic mining industry, etc. In this study in connection with this issue, an analysis on the recovery change by improvement of mining method was executed. 3D modeling technique was used to construct a 3D model. 3D model includes the geological structure, the limestone ore body and the underground pits and tunnels excavated at the Daepyeong District of Daesung MDI Donghae District. By using the 3D model, measured resources, reserves and ore recovery were evaluated from the results of pilot operation of the room and pillar hybrid mining method, which is a variant of room and pillar mining method. These results were compared with those obtained from the conventional mining method. The ore recovery obtained by hybrid mining method was found to be up to 71.6%, showing about 26%p. increase compared with the case of conventional mining method.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.449-457
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• 2019

Physical model tests were first performed to investigate the failure pattern of multiple pillar-roof support system. It was observed in the physical model tests, pillars were design with the same mechanical parameters in model #1, cracking occurred simultaneously in panel pillars and the roof above barrier pillars. When pillars 2 to 5 lost bearing capacity, collapse of the roof supported by those pillars occurred. Physical model #2 was design with a relatively weaker pillar (pillar 3) among six pillars. It was found that the whole pillar-roof system was divided into two independent systems by a roof crack, and two pillars collapse and roof subsidence events occurred during the loading process, the first failure event was induced by the pillars failure, and the second was caused by the roof crack. Then, for a multiple pillar-roof support system, three types of failure patterns were analysed based on the condition of pillar and roof. It can be concluded that any failure of a bearing component would cause a subsidence event. However, the barrier pillar could bear the transferred load during the stress redistribution process, mitigating the propagation of collapse or cutting the roof to insulate the collapse area. Importantly, some effective methods were suggested to decrease the risk of catastrophic collapse, and the deep-hole-blasting was employed to improve the stability of the pillar and roof support system in a room and pillar mine.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.508-515
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• 2016

In this study, we compared the stability of the pillars by using room and pillar mining method with the four models with different stiffness and pillar overlap ratio. The experimental models consist of two plaster models (overlap ratio 0%, 100%) and two cement models(overlap ratio 0%, 100%). The soft and hard rocks are modeled by plaster and cement models respectively. In these experiments, the model materials with strength values reflecting the calculated scaled factors not been used, so it is not a true scaled model test that reproduces in situ state in the laboratory. Experimental results show that the different overlap ratio pillars are one of the factors that can affect the stability of the mine.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2016

This study deals with the case that was the field application of the microseismic monitoring techniques for the stability monitoring in a domestic mine. The usefulness and limitations of the microseismic techniques were examined through analyzing the microseismic monitored data. The target limestone mine adopted a hybrid room-and-pillar mining method to improve the extraction ratio. The accelerometers were installed in each vertical pillar within the test bed which has the horizontal cross-section $50m{\times}50m$. The measured signals were divided into 4 types; blasting induced signal, drilling induced signal, damage induced signal, and electric noise. The stability analysis was performed based on the measured damage induced signals. After the blasting in the mining section close to the test bed, the damage of the pillar was increased and rockfall near the test bed could be estimated from monitored microseismic data. It was possible to assess the pillar stability from the changes of daily monitored data and the proposed safety criteria from the accumulated monitored data. However, there was a difficulty to determine the 3D microseismic source positions due to the 2D local sensor arrays. Also, it was needed to use real-time monitoring methods in domestic mines. By complementing the problems encountered in the mine application and comparing microseismic monitored data with mining operations, the microseismic monitoring technique can be used as a better safety method.