25th International Conference on Ground Control in Mining

Pillar Reinforcement or Rib Support?

André C. Zingano, Associate Professor

Jair C. Koppe, Professor
João Felipe C.L. Costa, Associate Professor
Department of Mining Engineering
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

ABSTRACT
The coal pillars in room-and-pillar mining method are
subjected to vertical stress due to overburden rock mass and
horizontal stress relieve due to entries excavation around them.
Some coal mining companies are applying rock bolts and steel
straps to improve the pillar strength, consequently to reducing the
pillar size and increasing coal recovery. This kind of approach
deserves some discussion, whether it is pillar reinforcement or just
rib support. The efficiency of pillar reinforcement (or rib support)
is directly related to the initial load capacity of coal pillar, the type
of excavation, and the width to high ratio of the pillar. The
objective of this paper is to understand the mechanism of pillar
reinforcement (or rib support) using rock bolts and steel straps on
pillar ribs. Numerical simulation taking into account the relations
listed above. The results showed that the increase of coal pillar
strength is very short, and there is no influence on improvement of
load capacity of pillar. However, the rib support avoids block
falling, rib failure, and displacement, reducing the pillar failure
propagation into the pillar center.
Keywords: coal, pillar reinforcement, room and pillar.
INTRODUCTION
Brazilian underground coal mining applies room-and-pillar
mining method, with the pillars designed by the Salamon-Munro
formula (Salamon and Munro, 1967). Coal pillars should be
designed as a permanent structure to avoid subsidence and
groundwater problems. Ground control problems, such as roof falls,
pillar failure and floor heave are very common and tend to increase
when mining companies face production and geological problems.
The overburden thickness varies from 20 to 400 meters,
which is the maximum depth that mining companies are actually
mining. More than 400 m deep is not economically mineable.
Because coal recovery is very small, depending on the size of
pillar and the depth of coal seam.
Therefore, some mining companies are applying pillar
reinforcement to increase the pillar strength and reduce pillar
dimensions. However, some of these pillars failed after one or two
years, but others did not.
section of pillars that was mined ten years ago collapsed
completely. The probable cause was that the pillar size was reduced
by rib spalling over the years, until they became sufficiently small
and failed.
After the pillars were found collapsed, the mining company
installed the required pillar reinforcement on the ribs of the pillars
around the collapsed area and the main entries. Also all the drifts
around the collapsed area were backfilled with the rock wastes
from the mining operations. The rib reinforcement was made with
fully grouted rock bolts and metal straps (Figure 1). This
reinforcement consisted of three or four rows of fully grouted rock
bolts spaced at 1.5 meters on average.
The pillars were subjected to the vertical and horizontal
stresses distribution due to excavation of the drifts, and the
magnitude of stresses redistribution depends mainly on the
overburden thickness. Stress relieve in the pillar ribs causes rib
displacements, which if sufficient, will also cause the rib to fail.
Also, the roof support has influence on pillar stability,
because there are horizontal stress induced in immediate roof and
vertical displacements that will increase the pressure on the ribs of
the pillar. This pressure increase may be sufficient to cause rib
failure and, consequently, pillar failure.
The borehole pressure cells for monitoring pressure changes
were installed in the reinforced pillars and extensometers were
installed near the pillar ribs to monitor the effect of pillar
reinforcement. Figure 2 shows the changes in pillar pressure and
entry convergence rate close to collapse area. It can be seen that
pillar reinforcement and backfilling of drifts worked well in
slowing down the advance of pillar collapse. Therefore, the pillars
were truly reinforced and, consequently, their strength was
increased.
It was observed, after inspections of the mine site where the
pillar collapse and pillar reinforcement occurred that the pillar
nearest to the collapse zone sustained large deformations, as shown
by the rock bolts and straps behavior. Figure 3 shows the
deformation of the pillar, comparing the position of the rock bolt
and the strap.

Another type of pillar failure is due to the age of pillar. The The main issue of this research is: is there pillar
pillars with ten years old or more start to fail. Recently, a reinforcement or only rib support to reduce pillar deformation.

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40

35

30

Velocity (mm/100/day)
25

20

15

10

0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550
Time (days)

Figure 2 – Changes of pressure in the pillar and the velocity of

convergence of the entry.

Figure 3 – Deformation of the pillar due to reinforcement (no

scale).
Figure 1 – Pillars reinforced with rock bolts and metal straps.
The objective of this paper is to analyze the mechanism of
3000 the behavior of the application of pillar reinforcement at the pillar
ribs using rock bolts and straps. The analysis will take into account
2500 the properties of the rock masses that are the immediate roof and
main roof, and pillar and entry dimensions, and thickness of the
Convergence (mm/100)

2000 coal seam.

1500 The study starts with a description of geology and structure

of the coal seam, that will influence the stability and failure
1000 mechanisms of the pillars and the reinforcement. It then studies
analyzes the mechanism for this case study with numerical
500 modeling to understand and simulate the mechanism of pillar
reinforcement.
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550
GEOLOGICAL SETTING
Time (days)

Two different coal seams within the Rio Bonito Formation

are mined in Santa Catarina State. The first is the Barro Branco
Seam which is about 1.5- to 2.3-m-thick, and the second is the
Bonito Seam which is about 2.5- to 5.5-m-thick.

The Barro Branco coal seam is located at the top of the

upper part of the Rio Bonito Formation, with minor variations in
seam inclination (or dip). However, it has many faults and

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fractures. The magnitude of fault movement varies from a few
centimeters to more than 5 meters.
Figure 4 shows the geological detail and the thickness of
various rock layers in the immediate roof and floor of the coal
seam. The immediate floor comprises of siltstone, underlied by the
laminated and massive sandstone layers. The immediate roof is
laminated sandstone about 4 m thick overlain by a 10 m thick layer
of massive sandstone. The thickness of the coal seam is 3.8 meters.
Figure 4 – Geological detail in the roof and floor around the coal
seam (thicknesses in meters).
THE PILLAR REINFORCEMENT
Coal pillars are essential elements in underground coal
mining, e.g. room and pillar and longwall mining. Coal seams
could be considered as jointed media, where the joint spacing can
be less than 5cm (1.97 in). Local pillar instabilities due to such
joints could lead to serious fatalities and reduce the effective pillar
area in long term.
Sometimes it is necessary to have a very large pillar to
ensure a stable pillar design and consequently a safe panel.
Otherwise, rib pillar reinforcement has to be done to prevent pillar
sloughing and spalling. Theoretically, the reinforcement of pillar
ribs provides pillar confinement; i.e. it increases the pillar strength
(Wykoff, 1950; Weakly, 1982; Agapito, et.al., 1985; Weakley,
1984). However, Zelanko (1992) and Dolinar and Tadolini (1991)
reported that pillar rib reinforcement does not significantly increase
the strength of pillar, but that it just avoid pillar spalling. There are
few publications about pillar reinforcement, most of these works
studied the pillar reinforcement on a laboratory scale (Zelanko,
1992; Dolinar and Tadolini 1991; Ringwald and Brawner, 1989).
Zingano (2002) studied the effect of support to prevent
block sliding from pillars due to the 50° dip fractures in the coal
seam. He noted that pillar stress increase very little, about 0.5MPa,
when the fully grouted bolts with pre-tension of 5tons were used as
rib supports.
MODELING OF PILLAR REINFORCEMENT
Two-dimensional numerical model was applied to simulate
the pillar reinforcement. The reinforcement of pillar is simulated by
applying the cable structural element as a fully grouted rock bolt,
and beam structural elements of FLAC at the pillar ribs and in the
roof. The excavation of drifts is simulated by removing the
elements that represent the drifts, causing the roof and pillar to
deform.
The difficulties in building this model are associated with
correct definition of mining sequence and geomechanical properties
of each stratum and the interface between the immediate roof and
the top of pillar. The model simulation employed FLAC-2D,
version 4 (ITASCA,2002 ).
Model Geometry and Sequence
The numerical model simulates the pillar reinforcement
with a model that has three entries and two pillars. The first pillar is
reinforced, and the second one does not have reinforcement. The
geometry of the model is shown in Figure 5, with the thickness of
each seam specified.
Figure 5 – Geometry used in the numerical model (distances in
meters).
The objective is to simulate the behavior of a coal pillar
subjected to field stress (horizontal and vertical stress) and the
evolution of failure due to excavation, and stress redistribution.
The steps of the numerical simulation are:
1. load initial stress;
2. excavation of the entries;
3. apply pillar reinforcement.
The numerical model is subject to different pressures
applied to the top of the model to simulate four different
overburden thicknesses, i.e., 80m, 100m 150m, 200m, and 300m.
In each coal seam depth, the model is cycled until it reaches
the equilibrium of forces or the elements get bad geometry. The
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objective is to simulate the behavior of the coal pillar and the effect The straps in the model are simulated by using the beam
of the reinforcement when the coal pillar failed. structural model, considering the width of the strap is 0.2 meters
and Young’s Modulus is 7.58E10 Pascals.
Material Properties
Initial Stresses
The material properties are shown in Table 1. The roof and
floor rocks follow the Mohr-Coulomb elastic-plastic behavior. The The virgin vertical and horizontal stresses and the ratio
coal and claystone rocks follow the strain softening material between them are necessary to simulate the rock behavior
behavior. The Young’s modulus (E) of the roof is higher than the surrounding mine openings in the numerical model. Various factors
coal seam, but the E of the floor is nearly the same. Therefore, this can change the horizontal to vertical stress ratio, such as tectonic
case involves a roof which is stiffer than coal while the floor is influence, anisotropy of the rock mass, and topography variations
about the same as coal. Table 2 shows the properties for coal seam (Cornet, 1993). The rock mass in this study is a sedimentary
for strain softening behavior. formation affected by tectonic pressures. This situation makes the
rock mass strongly anisotropic and heterogeneous. The relationship
Table 1- Rock properties used for the model between vertical and horizontal stress based on the Poisson’s ratio
can not be applied in this case study.
Rock Young’s Poisson’s Friction Cohesion
Modulus Ratio Angle (Pa) In-situ measurements of the stress field magnitude in this
(Pa) (degrees) region of Brazil are not available. It was assumed that the initial
Massive Sandstone 2.47E10 0.25 37.4 5.42E6 stress ratio is 1.0, due to erosion of the overburden and tectonic
Laminated 9.75E9 0.25 33.2 4.38E6 pressure.
Sandstone
Siltstone 6.13E9 0.25 30.3 3.90E6 The vertical and horizontal pressures are applied at the
Coal 5.10E9 0.25 26.9 1.80E6 boundary (or limits) of the model. The vertical stress calculated
Claystone 2.24E9 0.25 17.2 1.38E6 based on an overburden thickness of 60 meters and the horizontal
stress is twice the vertical stress.

Numerical Modeling
Table 2 – Strain softening properties for coal and claystone.
The numerical model shows the behavior of the pillars in
Coal 0.00 0.003 1
response to the stress distribution and application of the
Friction Table 26.9 15 15 reinforcement at the pillar ribs. To analyze the effect of the pillar
Cohesion Table 1.8E6 1E5 1E5 reinforcement process, comparisons were made between the pillars
Claystone 0.00 0.003 1 that were reinforced and those without reinforcement, in terms of
Friction Table 16.9 10 10 rib displacement, stress distribution in the pillar, vertical stress
Cohesion Table 1E6 1E5 1E5 profile along the pillars, and the axial force of the rock bolt. To
monitoring the displacement, the nodes of the elements that
represent the pillar rib were monitored by the history command on
The numerical model is a two-dimensional plane strain FLAC.
model. Since the objective of this study is to understand the
deformation behavior in the plane of the model, out-of-plane strains Figure 6 shows the horizontal displacement (xdisp) of the
are not considered. This criterion assumes a linear relationship pillar ribs for the pillar with and without reinforcement by depth of
between the maximum and minimum stresses. 80m, 100m, and 150m. The same pillar is subjected to different
depths. The difference of the displacements of the pillars with and
The same type of rock bolts is used for roof support and without reinforcement increases with the coal seam depth, e.g.,
pillar reinforcement. The difference is the length of bolts, 1.5m for with the vertical stress.
the roof and 2.5m for pillar reinforcement.
The depth of 150m is the maximum depth that the rib bolts
Table 3 presents the properties for the cable elements and will support (or is active) against the displacement of the ribs. This
resin that FLAC require for simulation the rock bolts. All the rock can be observed on the axial force of the rock bolts installed at the
bolts are fully grouted with no pre-tenson. ribs. The same behavior shown in the displacement of the rib at
100m depth is observed in the axial force of the rock bolt (Figure
7). The axial force of the rock bolt for 100m is less than the axial
Table 3 – Properties of cable structural elements. force for 80m.

Figure 8 shows the vertical stress distribution in both

Properties Value
pillars, where there is a small difference between the pillars with
Bolt area (m2) 2.8E-4 and without reinforcement for depths up to 150m.
Bolt Modulus (Pa) 2.06E11
Bolt tensile strength (N) 1.4E5 For depths 150m, 200m and 300m the rock bolts are already
Grout bond stiffness (Pa) 2.19E11 yielded (Figure 7), losing their structural function for
reinforcement. However, the rock bolt, and the straps reduce the
Grout bond stress (N/m) 3.13E6 displacement of the pillar ribs, and consequently the rib spalling.
Grout friction angle 25.5
Perimeter (m) 0.02992

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0.12
with reinforcement
without reinforcement
0.1
horizontal displacement (m*10)

0.08

0.06

0.04

0.02
(b)

0
70 90 110 130
depth (m) 150 170

Figure 6 – Horizontal displacement

1.45

1.4
axial force (N)

1.35
(c)

1.3

1.25

1.2
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
depth (m)

Figure 7 – Axial force of the rock bolt installed in the rib pillar.

(d)

(a)
(e)
Figure 8 – Vertical stress distribution in a coal pillar at four
different depths. (a) 80m (b) 100m (c) 150m (d) 200m (e) 300m.
The pillar #1 is reinforced with rock bolt and straps, and the pillar
#2 is not reinforced.
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Since there is no rib spalling, the center of the pillar remains

confined. So the stress in the pillar can increase (Figure 8d and 8e),
compared to the pillars with no reinforcement, the pillars are totally
yielded (Figure 9d and 9e).

Figure 9 shows the plasticity condition for the pillars. Also

there is difference only for the 80m depth. For the others depths
there is no difference between pillars with and without
reinforcement.

The vertical stress profile (Figure 10) for both pillars (with
and without reinforcement) show that the pillar with rock bolts in
the ribs can support more stress at the ribs when the pillar does not
yield completely.
(d)

(e)
(a)
Figure 9 – Plasticity conditions in the coal pillars. (a) 80m (b)
100m (c) 150m (d) 200m (e) 300m. The pillar #1 is reinforced with
rock bolt and straps, and the pillar #2 is not reinforced.

(b)

Figure 10 – Vertical stress profile for 150m depth.

CONCLUSIONS

This study showed the mechanism of the application of rock

bolts at the pillar ribs.

In fact, there is a small increase of pillar and rib strengths..

(c) But, for this reason, it is too small to reduce the size of pillar or the
safety factor for a specific depth.

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Therefore, the rock bolts applied to the pillar ribs are a very
good support against rib spalling and deformation of pillar.

The support for rib spalling is an advantage to long term

stability of pillar, because it maintains the confinement of the pillar
center.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank Luiz Englert Foundation,

Mineral Research and Mining Planning Lab., and Federal
University of Rio Grande do Sul for supporting this research.

REFERENCES

1. Salamon, M.D.G. e Munro, A.H.A., 1967, A study of the

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Metallurgy, vol. 68, pág. 55-67, Johannesburg, África do Sul.
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Comprehensive Rock Engineering, J.A. Hudson Ed.-In-Chief,
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3. ITASCA Consulting Group, FLAC-2D version 4.0, Users
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4. Ringwald, J.P. and Brawner, C.O., 1989, Reinforcement
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8. Weakly L.A., 1982, Room-and-pillar ground control utilizing
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