Report of Investigations 9529: Active Control of Underground Stresses Through Rock Pressurization

Details

• Journal Article:
  Denver, CO: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, RI 9529
• Personal Author:
  Vandergrift, Thomas L.
• Description:
  To significantly increase the stability of underground excavations while exploiting the full advantages of confined rock strength, methods must be developed to actively control the distribution of stresses near the excavation. The U.S. Bureau of Mines study examines theoretical and practical aspects of rock pressurization, an active stress control concept that induces compressive stress in the wall rock through repeated hydraulic fracturing with a settable fluid. Numerical analyses performed by incorporating the rock pressurization concept into a variety of boundary-element models indicate that rock pressurization has the potential to improve underground excavation stability in three ways: (1) by relocating stress concentrations away from the weak opening surface to stronger, confined wall rock; (2) by inducing additional stresses in a biaxial stress field to reduce the difference between the principal stress components near the surface of the opening; and (3) by counteracting the tensile stresses induced in the rock around internally loaded openings. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Coal Coal Mining Mining Occupational Health Safety Safety Management
• Keywords:
  Caverns; Coal-mining; Compressive-strength; Excavation; Formation-pressure; Hydraulic-fracturing; Mathematical-models; Measurement-equipment; Numerical-analysis; Overburden; Rock-mechanics; Rock-mechanics; Safety-measures; Safety-practices
• Source:
  Denver, CO: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, RI 9529, 1995 Jan; :1-49
• Series:
  NIOSH Numbered Publications   ; Mining Publications  
• Subseries:
  Report of Investigations
• Publisher:
  U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  Colorado ; OSHA Region 8
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DRC - Denver Research Center
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  47 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20039363
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB95-179610
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1995
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c493f76b86efd5977d74b20df54b0f61028d32376a28684a70e6c85b8664b16f6821bc00f8dc20838c5f2cdd764c69f7afb354aceef25315766b29498cc5458c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/10051/cdc_10051_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 5.44 MB ]