ABSTRACT
Abstract: Rockbursts are dynamic failure events that continue to be a scourge in the mining industry, and,more recently, in the tunneling industry. They can be the cause of, or result of, seismic events, and are usually associatedwith high stress conditions. These dynamic events occur essentially in two categories: those in which the rockburst damage location and the location of seismicity are coincident; and those in which the seismic source and the resulting damage may be separated by a substantial distance. In either of these categories, rock can be ejected from excavation walls, often at high velocity. Conventionally, the solution to such problems lies in appropriate engineering design. The logical approach is: firstly, design of layouts and geometries of excavations, with the aim of minimizing the occurrence of seismicity and rockbursts; secondly, implementation of destressing or preconditioning, with the aim of minimizing the occurrence of rockbursts; finally, if rockbursts cannot be prevented, the damage they cause must be contained by appropriately designed rock support. Conventional design of support requires knowledge of the demand on the support system imposed in a rockburst event and the capacity of the support system. Regrettably, demand and capacity parameters are usually not known with confidence. Conventional design of rock support for these conditions is therefore problematic. Physical testing of rock support for over 40 years, and observed behavior underground, have shown that available rock support components can absorb large amounts of energy. This represents an alternative approach to design of support – empirical design, based on test results and observations of performance of support in rockburst events.
