Workshop throws new light on geo-mining

AN EFFECTIVE strata control measure of the face was one of the most important factors for successful long-wall operation in given geo-mining condition, said Prof. UK Singh, Head of the Mining Engineering Department in Indian School Mines (Dhanbad), here on Saturday.

AN EFFECTIVE strata control measure of the face was one of the most important factors for successful long-wall operation in given geo-mining condition, said Prof. UK Singh, Head of the Mining Engineering Department in Indian School Mines (Dhanbad), here on Saturday.

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Delivering a lecture on ‘A Model of Dynamic Loading Effect on Powered Roof Support’ on the second day of the two-day national workshop on ‘Application of Rock Mechanics in Mining’ in the Mining Engineering Department, Institute of Technology of Banaras Hindu University, Dr Singh said, “In the recent past, the failures of long-wall faces in Indian geo-mining condition are known to be related with the difficult caving nature of roof strata. Dynamic loading associated with the mass caving of the strata has also been reported in a few cases”, he said.

“The experience of working in field shows that complicacy of long-wall roof caving mainly gives rise to problems like face instability, dead closure of powered roof support, unproductive face maintenance, poor face performance and sometimes permanent abandonment of the face”, he said.

“Unfortunately, no systematic study has been done so far to understand the basic mechanism of dynamic roof loading on performance of roof support”, said Prof. Singh, adding, “the review of research papers shows that such incidents have been reported but the basic understanding of the dynamic loading mechanism and its effect is still not well understood”.

He said that a proper study of dynamic loading was very important for selection of powered roof support.