Ground Stress in Mining (Part 2): Calibrating and Verifying Longwall Stress Models

Researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) have been conducting ground control research with the goal of improving the stability of mine excavations to ensure the safety of mine workers. Part 1 of this research involves representing stress redistribution using empirical equations or numerical models that are calibrated to observations and measurements. In Part 2 of this research, reported here, numerical models are used to evaluate mine layout design to establish better procedures for predicting ground stress in mining to identify safe and unsafe working areas and escapeways. Current published guidance by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) recommends an approach to calibrating models to observations, but it does not include recommendations for using in situ measurements to calibrate such models. A specific goal of this research is to explore and demonstrate procedures for calibrating numerical models to both observations and measurements.