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Accession Number
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PB2013-102223
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Title
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Toward Pillar Design to Prevent Collapse of Room-and-Pillar Mines.
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Publication Date
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2012
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Media Count
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11p
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Personal Author
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R. K. Zipf
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Abstract
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In some instances, extensive room-and-pillar workings can collapse with little warning and pose a serious risk to underground miners. Traditional strength-based pillar design methods applicable to coal or hard-rock mines use a factor of safety defined as pillar strength divided by pillar stress. Factor of stability, defined as local mine stiffness divided by post-failure pillar stiffness, may offer a way to design room-and-pillar mines and eliminate collapses. Three alternative design approaches to decreasing the risk of large-scale catastrophic collapses are described: the containment approach, the prevention approach, and the full-extraction approach. Until good data on the post-failure behavior of pillars become available, the containment and full-extraction options are the safest. The limitations in our ability to evaluate both the stability of old workings and the long-term performance of room-and-pillar mines are described.
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Keywords
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Accident prevention
Accident risk
Coal mines
Collapse
Miners
Pillars
Safety
Underground mining
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Source Agency
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National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
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NTIS Subject Category
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48A - Mineral Industries
50D - Soil & Rock Mechanics
68G - Environmental Health & Safety
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Corporate Author
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National Inst. for Occupational Safety and Health, Spokane, WA. Spokane Research Lab.
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Document Type
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Technical report
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Title Note
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N/A
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NTIS Issue Number
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1306
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Contract Number
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N/A
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