Towards a three dimensional strike stabilising pillar model in FLAC.

A method is presented that allows a 3-D interpretation of 2-D FLAC results of a strike stabilising pillar model. A history of average pillar stress with respect to distance to mining face is calculated using MINSIM-D. The FLAC model is controlled by means of a user function such that the MINSIM-D generated stress history is duplicated in the FLAC average pillar stress history. A third dimension is thus implicitly introduced into FLAC. In this way various stages of failure in the FLAC model can be related to a distance to mining face by referring the FLAC average pillar stress to the MINSIM-D curve and reading off a distance to face. This tool could prove useful to mine planners to provide information about local hangingwall and regional support conditions in the planning stage.
A method is presented that allows a 3-D interpretation of 2-D FLAC results of a strike stabilising pillar model. A history of average pillar stress with respect to distance to mining face is calculated using MINSIM-D. The FLAC model is controlled by means of a user function such that the MINSIM-D generated stress history is duplicated in the FLAC average pillar stress history. A third dimension is thus implicitly introduced into FLAC. In this way various stages of failure in the FLAC model can be related to a distance to mining face by referring the FLAC average pillar stress to the MINSIM-D curve and reading off a distance to face. This tool could prove useful to mine planners to provide information about local hangingwall and regional support conditions in the planning stage.