Mining Publication: Coal Mine Subsidence Prediction Using a Boundary-Element Program
Original creation date: March 1999
Authors: KA Heasley, TM Barton
NIOSHTIC2 Number: 20022704
Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration Annual Meeting, 1998 Mar :1-6
This paper presents several case studies in which a mechanics-based boundary-element program is used to back-calculate the surface subsidence associated with various panels at several northern Appalachian coal miners. The program used in this case study is called LAMODEL, which incorporates a frictionless, laminated overburden into a general-purpose displacement-discontinuity code primarily designed for calculating the stresses and displacements in coal mines or other thin-seam or vein-type deposits. In this paper, the program is used to calculate both the underground convergence and the resulting surface subsidence at five longwall panels and a room-and-pillar section. The fitted subsidence from the model is compared with the field measurements and analyzed. The results from this work show that the LAMODEL program is not as accurate as available empirical subsidence-predictive methods; the expected correlation between the geology and the optimum input parameters is not evident. However, for a mechanics-based program, LAMODEL does provide moderately accurate subsidence calculations, and it is one of a few programs that can even attempt to practically calculate both underground stress and convergence and the resulting surface subsidence.
NIOSHTIC2 Number: 20022704
Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration Annual Meeting, 1998 Mar :1-6