Minimizing uncertainties in roof rock reinforcement design for stable mine roadways

This paper enumerates and includes the uncertainties in roof rock reinforcement designs for the mine roadways intersection under varying geomining conditions. The field data used in the analysis is collected from several coal mines. The rock loads, support resistance, and safety factors are determined and their probabilistic distribution functions are best fitted to include their field uncertainties. The uncertainties quantified in terms of the failure probability of reinforcement systems are estimated and subsequently correlated with the safety factor. The acceptable values of the failure probability of the reinforcement design parameters are estimated. The design uncertainties of a stable reinforcement system can be minimized by selecting the optimum safety factor matching the acceptable values of failure probability. The method described in this paper would help to minimize the design uncertainties in roof rock reinforcement at mine roadways intersections to improve safety and productivity in underground coal mines.