A potential method of containing rockburst damage and enhancing safety using a sacrificial layer

Rockbursts are very violent events that are a great safety hazard and often leave excavations severely damaged. The manifestation of a rockburst is usually rock ejected from the walls of the excavation. The ejected rock is commonly fairly finely fragmented, as illustrated in Figure 1. If concrete is involved in the construction of the excavation, this may be massively moved, as illustrated in Figure 2. Failure of rock support elements is often observed, with containment support (wire mesh, shotcrete) often pulling over tendon supports, leaving them exposed and protruding out of the rock walls, as shown in Figure 3. Mining and tunnelling operations may also be severely affected by rockburst damage. Clean-up, rehabilitation, and re-supporting of damaged excavations may be hazardous and will incur direct costs, often far in excess of the cost of creating and supporting the original excavation. In addition, there will be many indirect costs, including: