Numerical Modelling of Underground Coal Pillar Stability for Developed and Depillaring Panels for a South Indian underground Coal Mine

Abstract

Mining is the practise of obtaining valuable minerals or other types of geological materials from the earth while abiding by reasonable social, legal, and regulatory restraints. The Bord and Pillar Method and the Longwall Method are the two most common underground mining techniques for coal. The majority of the pillars encountered in the earlier approach. The pillar, a structural element and important feature of the mine, is what gives it stability. A pillar support is intended to control rockmass movement across the mining zone while activities are being carried out. Too-small pillars would affect the mine’s stability, increasing extraction percentage, and vice versa. This research objectively evaluates the several optimal combinations of pillar dimensions that could be successfully incorporated in the mines. Geotechnical traits of a local underground coal miner have been identified in a laboratory setting. The safety and viability of a mining method are assessed using an ideal relationship between the safety factor and the extraction percentage. Numerical modelling was applied to determine the deformation of the pillar and the maximum stress generated across the pillar and gallery.