Stiffness Determination of Backfill-Rock Interface to Numerically Investigate Backfill Stress Distributions in Mine Stopes

Numerical modeling is an effective and efficient method to investigate the stress distributions of backfill in stopes, which should be well understood in underground mining. Interface elements between backfill and rock in simulated stopes had been proved to be essential components, for which the sti...

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Main Authors: Guangsheng Liu, Xiaocong Yang, Lijie Guo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2021-01-01
Series:Advances in Civil Engineering
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/6460764
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author Guangsheng Liu
Xiaocong Yang
Lijie Guo
author_facet Guangsheng Liu
Xiaocong Yang
Lijie Guo
author_sort Guangsheng Liu
collection DOAJ
description Numerical modeling is an effective and efficient method to investigate the stress distributions of backfill in stopes, which should be well understood in underground mining. Interface elements between backfill and rock in simulated stopes had been proved to be essential components, for which the stiffness parameters need to be assessed and assigned. However, few reports have revealed the effects of interface stiffness on backfill stress distributions, and there is not yet a clear solution to determine the interface stiffness to simulate stresses in backfilled stopes, except an empirical method for simply applying a high value suggested in FLAC manual. In this study, a new solution is first proposed to determine the normal stiffness and shear stiffness of interface elements, respectively, in numerical modeling of backfill stresses. The applicability of the solution has been verified by investigating backfill stress distributions in mine stopes of two widely used mining methods with variable stiffness values. The results show that the newly proposed method leads to totally the same backfill stress distributions with models applying the interface stiffness by the method in FLAC manual based on a “rule-of-thumb” but will save at least 20%–30% calculation time to improve modeling efficiency under the same simulation conditions and will carry much clear physical meanings corresponding to the interaction between backfill and rock walls in mine stopes. In addition, the vertical and horizontal stresses show good agreements with the analytical stresses predicted by the Marston equation under the at-rest state, which validates the reliability of the proposed solution for interface stiffness. Moreover, the plotting methods of stress distributions and the coefficient of lateral earth pressure of backfill in simulated stopes with proposed interface stiffness were discussed to further clarify the reasonable methods to investigate the backfill stresses in mine stopes, especially after considering the effects of the convergence from rock walls, which is a very significant and common phenomenon in practical mining engineering.
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spelling doaj-art-de3d19a8fe98477ab3824c9abb66d7d32025-02-03T01:25:00ZengWileyAdvances in Civil Engineering1687-80861687-80942021-01-01202110.1155/2021/64607646460764Stiffness Determination of Backfill-Rock Interface to Numerically Investigate Backfill Stress Distributions in Mine StopesGuangsheng Liu0Xiaocong Yang1Lijie Guo2BGRIMM Technology Group, Building 23, Zone 18 of ABP, No. 188, South 4th Ring Road West, Beijing 100160, ChinaBGRIMM Technology Group, Building 23, Zone 18 of ABP, No. 188, South 4th Ring Road West, Beijing 100160, ChinaBGRIMM Technology Group, Building 23, Zone 18 of ABP, No. 188, South 4th Ring Road West, Beijing 100160, ChinaNumerical modeling is an effective and efficient method to investigate the stress distributions of backfill in stopes, which should be well understood in underground mining. Interface elements between backfill and rock in simulated stopes had been proved to be essential components, for which the stiffness parameters need to be assessed and assigned. However, few reports have revealed the effects of interface stiffness on backfill stress distributions, and there is not yet a clear solution to determine the interface stiffness to simulate stresses in backfilled stopes, except an empirical method for simply applying a high value suggested in FLAC manual. In this study, a new solution is first proposed to determine the normal stiffness and shear stiffness of interface elements, respectively, in numerical modeling of backfill stresses. The applicability of the solution has been verified by investigating backfill stress distributions in mine stopes of two widely used mining methods with variable stiffness values. The results show that the newly proposed method leads to totally the same backfill stress distributions with models applying the interface stiffness by the method in FLAC manual based on a “rule-of-thumb” but will save at least 20%–30% calculation time to improve modeling efficiency under the same simulation conditions and will carry much clear physical meanings corresponding to the interaction between backfill and rock walls in mine stopes. In addition, the vertical and horizontal stresses show good agreements with the analytical stresses predicted by the Marston equation under the at-rest state, which validates the reliability of the proposed solution for interface stiffness. Moreover, the plotting methods of stress distributions and the coefficient of lateral earth pressure of backfill in simulated stopes with proposed interface stiffness were discussed to further clarify the reasonable methods to investigate the backfill stresses in mine stopes, especially after considering the effects of the convergence from rock walls, which is a very significant and common phenomenon in practical mining engineering.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/6460764
spellingShingle Guangsheng Liu
Xiaocong Yang
Lijie Guo
Stiffness Determination of Backfill-Rock Interface to Numerically Investigate Backfill Stress Distributions in Mine Stopes
Advances in Civil Engineering
title Stiffness Determination of Backfill-Rock Interface to Numerically Investigate Backfill Stress Distributions in Mine Stopes
title_full Stiffness Determination of Backfill-Rock Interface to Numerically Investigate Backfill Stress Distributions in Mine Stopes
title_fullStr Stiffness Determination of Backfill-Rock Interface to Numerically Investigate Backfill Stress Distributions in Mine Stopes
title_full_unstemmed Stiffness Determination of Backfill-Rock Interface to Numerically Investigate Backfill Stress Distributions in Mine Stopes
title_short Stiffness Determination of Backfill-Rock Interface to Numerically Investigate Backfill Stress Distributions in Mine Stopes
title_sort stiffness determination of backfill rock interface to numerically investigate backfill stress distributions in mine stopes
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/6460764
work_keys_str_mv AT guangshengliu stiffnessdeterminationofbackfillrockinterfacetonumericallyinvestigatebackfillstressdistributionsinminestopes
AT xiaocongyang stiffnessdeterminationofbackfillrockinterfacetonumericallyinvestigatebackfillstressdistributionsinminestopes
AT lijieguo stiffnessdeterminationofbackfillrockinterfacetonumericallyinvestigatebackfillstressdistributionsinminestopes