A Novel Experimental Technique to Simulate Shock Behaviour and Bursting Failure of Roadways

Rockburst is a sudden and dynamic failure of rock that can cause serious injury to miners and damage to the underground excavations. Stress path, dynamic disturbance, and support system play important and different roles in the generation processes of rockbursts, resulting rockbursts with variety of reasons and failure modes. A test facility that was capable of simulating such factors was developed to study shock behaviour and bursting failure of roadways. The results demonstrate that the modeled roadway was in good condition and retained a shock resistance capacity after three drop loads. Until the acceleration amplitude increased to a certain level at the time of the fourth dynamic loading, sudden bursting failure of modeled roadway occurred. Many large fragments ejected from the upper and middle regions of the roadway, accompanied with loud noise. A deep pit was observed after the bursting failure. The axial of the fan-shaped pit had an angle above the vertical. In addition, shock behaviour of the modeled roadway had been changed by the anchor-net support. Significant differences appeared between the acceleration signals measured in two roadway sections with and without the anchor-net support. The acceleration magnitude of the supported roadway section was strongly reduced by the presence of the anchor-net support. Even when the unsupported roadway section underwent a sudden injection failure, the roadway with anchor-net support was in good condition. This study may eventually lead to a methodology for studying the rockbursting resistance capacity of underground roadways.