Analysis of Yielding Steel Arch Support with Rock Bolts in Mine Roadways Stability Aspect

The result of the search for new technological solutions in the field of support for roadways in coal mines has in recent years been the widespread use of steel arch with rockbolt support systems. The efficiency of these systems is affected among other things by the option of installing rock bolts after the actual driving the mine roadway, the increased load capacity that these systems can support, and their resistance to dynamic weight. Large variation in the way that these steel arch support can be connected using different types of rock bolts necessitates mining research revealing the effectiveness of such solutions. Although the steel arch with rockbolt support system is used in the majority of European coal mines, it is still not possible to apply templates of schemes due to the diversity of geological and mining conditions. Therefore, throughout a period of several years, the authors of this article conducted research in situ under conditions of different schemes related to connecting arched support frames with rock bolts, with only selected results being presented in the article. The measurements of convergence, load supported by the system frame, load supported by the rock bolts, and the stratification of roof rocks were analyzed, carried out in two roadways with yielding steel arch support in which strand bolts were applied. The article also proposes the index for working maintenance nuw, used in preliminarily assessing the stability of a given working with a limited number of data concerning geomechanical conditions. Additionally considered are empirical methods used in Poland for designing steel arch with rock bolt support systems. The results of mine research indicate that strengthening yielding steel support with strand bolts through steel beams maintains the stability of a roadway, even when exposed to the exploitation stress. Aside from the impact of exploitation, deformations of the support system are negligible, despite the fact that the tensile forces acting on the rock bolts can reach values of up to 160 kN. Under favorable geological and mining conditions, support system frames can be spread up to 1.5 m apart when using rock bolts between them. The conducted measurement of convergence during a three year period revealed a compression amounting to a few centimeters. The results obtained by the research fully confirm the effectiveness of combined yielding steel arch with rock bolt support systems under different mining conditions.