Volume 39 (2017): Edizione 2 (June 2017)

Experience gained until now underground mining worldwide and in Poland indicates that remnants may have an impact on the occurrence of seismic phenomena. Remnants are stress concentration sites encompassing both the deposit and the layers of rock mass located above and below the undisturbed rock. In the case where stresses in the remnant exceed its strength, it may collapse, and under unfavourable geomechanical conditions, stress-induced rockburst may occur. Remnants may also cause breaking of strong roof layers above their edges, which results in the occurrence of high-energy shocks (Salustowicz [30], Adach [3], Adach and Butra [4]). This article presents the possibility of utilizing numerical modeling to evaluate the influence of remnant upon the occurrence of seismic phenomena. The results of numerical calculations performed for a model room-and-pillar mining system with roof deflection under the conditions of copper ore mines in the Legnica-Głogów Copper District (LGOM) are presented. Numerical calculations in a plane strain state were performed by means of Phase2 v. 8.0 software for the analyzed mining system in which remnant was left behind. The results of numerical modeling showed that sudden fracturing of roof layers above the mined out space may occur on the edge of the remnant. This may cause a shock with very high energy, and under the appropriate conditions, this may lead to the rockburst phenomenon.

This paper presents experimental comparison of two machine crushing technologies: one-stage and two-stage. The study was carried on a model double-toggle jaw crusher which allows crushing forces, energy and toggle displacement to be measured. The main aim of the work was to determine the energy consumption of crushing process assuming a given level of fragmentation. Studies were performed on three rocks: granite “Strzegom”, limestone “Morawica” and sandstone “Mucharz”. The material tested had a cubic shape and average dimension of 90 mm. One-stage crushing was carried out for outlet slot e_r = 11 mm, and two-stage crushing for er = 24 mm and 11 mm. In the tests special design of variable profile moving jaw was used and fixed jaw was flat. The analysis of the results shows that taking into account energy consumption, it is better to use two-stage crushing process. For given materials energy consumption in the two-stage crushing process was reduced by 30%.

Salt was excavated at the “Wieliczka” Salt Mine for over 700 years. Underground mining operations terminated in 1996, by which time almost 2,400 chambers and 245 km of galleries had been created underground, situated on 9 levels and a few interlevels. In 1978, the mine was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, which stated that parts of the mine with historical value had to be preserved for future generations. In order to preserve the most valuable chambers and galleries, activities aimed at establishing a protection pillar for excavations were conducted in the conservation area on Levels I-V. The need of large scope preserving works created the necessity to conduct a new and truly comprehensive geomechanical analysis. Such an analysis could only be done by means of advanced numerical modelling codes. Three-dimensional calculations were performed by means of FLAC 3D finite difference code. Rock mass stability assessment in the vicinity of excavations was carried out on the basis of the distribution and range of the so called failure zones. This comprehensive geomechanical analysis allows for verification and give the directions for future preservation and closure works in the “Wieliczka” mine.

The study concerns soil creep deformation in multistage triaxial stress tests under drained conditions. High resolution X-ray computed microtomography (XμCT) was involved in structure recognition before and after triaxial tests. Undisturbed Neogene clay samples, which are widespread in central Poland, were used in this study. XμCT was used to identify representative sample series and informed the detection and rejection of unreliable ones. Maximum deviatoric stress for in situ stress confining condition was equal 95.1 kPa. This result helped in the design of further multistage investigations. The study identified the rheological strain course, which can be broken down into three characterizations: decreasing creep strain rate, transitional constant creep velocity, and accelerating creep deformation. The study found that due to multistage creep loading, the samples were strengthened. Furthermore, there is a visibly “brittle” character of failure, which may be the consequence of the microstructure transformation as a function of time as well as collapse of voids. Due to the glacial tectonic history of the analyzed samples, the reactivation of microcracks might also serve as an explanation. The number of the various sizes of shear planes after failure is confirmed by XμCT overexposure.

The characteristics of copper-bearing rocks that include the structural and textural parameters are an important factor determining a possible gas accumulation in those rocks. In September 2009, in the Rudna copper mine in Poland, an outburst of gases and dolomite occurred. The analysis of the outburst mass showed that one of the main causes of the outburst was the different structural properties such as high porosity and presence of gas in the pores. This paper presents data from the structural analysis of dolomite from the Polkowice-Sieroszowice copper mine and the Rudna copper mine. Seven rock samples from various areas of the mines were tested by the following methods: mercury porosimetry (MIP), low pressure gas adsorption (LPNA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), computed microtomography (micro-CT). The SEM analyses of the rock samples allowed pores of various sizes and shapes to the observed. The porosity (MIP) of the dolomite changed in the range of 3-15%. The total micro and mesopore volume (LPNA) was from 0.002 cm³/g to 0.005 cm³/g. The macropore volume (MIP) was from 0.01 cm³/g to 0.06 cm³/g and the mean macropore diameter was from 0.09 μm to 0.18 μm. The dolomite samples varied in the surface area (LPNA) (0.7-1.5 m²/g) and the pore distribution. The structure of dolomite determines the possibility of the occurrence of gasogeodynamic phenomena and hence it is urgent that research be conducted into its changeability. To better understand the gasogeodynamic processes in copper-bearing rocks, it is necessary to constantly monitor and analyse in detail those areas that have different structural properties.

Due to the rapid development of geothermal technologies, the problem of efficient and proper evaluation of soil thermal conductivity becomes extremely important. Factors mostly affecting the soil conductivity are the conductivity of solid phase and the degree of saturation. The former one is mainly affected by the mineral composition, in particular, by the content of quartz whose conductivity is the highest one among all the minerals forming soil skeleton. Organic matter, because of its relatively low conductivity, influences the solid conductivity as well. The problem addressed in the paper is the influence of mentioned factors on temperature changes in the vicinity of thermally loaded structure embedded in the soil medium. Numerical simulations are carried out for different values of soil thermal conductivity resulting from various quartz contents and degrees of saturation. In addition, a weak coupled - heat and water transport - problem is considered.

Crack width measurement is an important element of research on the progress of self-healing cement composites. Due to the nature of this research, the method of measuring the width of cracks and their changes over time must meet specific requirements. The article presents a novel method of measuring crack width based on images from a scanner with an optical resolution of 6400 dpi, subject to initial image processing in the ImageJ development environment and further processing and analysis of results. After registering a series of images of the cracks at different times using SIFT conversion (Scale-Invariant Feature Transform), a dense network of line segments is created in all images, intersecting the cracks perpendicular to the local axes. Along these line segments, brightness profiles are extracted, which are the basis for determination of crack width. The distribution and rotation of the line of intersection in a regular layout, automation of transformations, management of images and profiles of brightness, and data analysis to determine the width of cracks and their changes over time are made automatically by own code in the ImageJ and VBA environment. The article describes the method, tests on its properties, sources of measurement uncertainty. It also presents an example of application of the method in research on autogenous self-healing of concrete, specifically the ability to reduce a sample crack width and its full closure within 28 days of the self-healing process.

The unipore methane diffusion model based on the solution of the second Fick’s law describes effectively the kinetics of methane release from coal grains. The knowledge of the model describing the kinetics of methane release from coal, the coalbed methane content, the sorption isotherm, the effective diffusion coefficient and the coal particle size distribution, enables the calculation of the volume of methane which is released from the coal spoil as a function of time. These assumptions became the basis for building the software that enables the analysis of methane emissions from coal during the longwall mining. Simulations were performed to determine the temporal and spatial methane inflow to the longwall. The share of methane emission from coal grains (taking into account both the emission kinetics and mass participation) of various classes has been analyzed. The results of the analysis showed that the methane from the small grains, in particular less than 0.1 mm in size, prevails. The mass fraction of these grains in the total weight does not exceed 5%. For the typical parameters determining the mining, geological and technological conditions of methane emissions at different moments of time and position of the longwall were determined.