Practical Use of Numerical Modelling in Underground Mining

In Room-and-pillar method for copper mining, several goals are set during mining design and calculation: establish the bearing capacity of the pillars (safety factor of the pillar), determining how much stronger this pillar is than a square pillar of the same width and height. In this study, the authors use the FLAC3D software constructed based on the framework of the finite-element method (FEM). Normally, empirical strength formulates that relate pillar strength to pillar width/height ratios have been successfully used in the literature for pillar strength estimation. The majority of pillar strength analysis has been conducted for rock pillars in horizontally bedded deposits. This work must be augmented by hard rock pillar data to advance the state-of-the-art pillar design for hard rock mining operations. Pillar failure mechanisms with particular reference to progressive pillar failure. However, pillar strength can be defined as the maximum resistance of a pillar to axial compression. The vertical stress, the peak in the pillar can easily be determined from FLAC3D. This vertical load can be converted to the actual stress on the pillars by normalizing the vertical stress σ p . In addition to the stress on the pillars, stability of the mine can easily be quantified. The factor of safety is a very easy calculation to perform in many circumstances.