Large scale field tests of high‐tensile steel wire mesh in combination with dynamic rockbolts subjected to rockburst loading

More and more underground mines are experiencing rockburst, which is a stress-induced violent ejection of rock that is normally encountered in deep mines. There are different approaches to determine the energy from rockburst, which is caused by excess stress concentrations in the rock mass. A major engineering challenge for mines experiencing this significant seismicity is to design the dynamic performance of their support systems. Therefore, a retaining system using dynamic rockbolts in combination with high-tensile steel wire mesh was tested to ascertain the behaviour and quantify the suitability of the system. A special large scale test facility was constructed for the purpose, which allowed verification of the percentage of energy transmitted by the rockbolts and wire mesh, based on the input energy. Numerous tests were carried out providing first findings on the load distribution within the support system.