International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 29 (2019) 93–97

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International Journal of Mining Science and Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijmst

Assessment of rockburst hazard by quantifying the consequence with

plastic strain work and released energy in numerical models
F. Wang ⇑, R. Kaunda
Mining Engineering Department, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Quantifying the rockburst consequence is of critical importance to reduce the hazards with preventative
Received 15 June 2018 measures in underground mines and deep tunnels. Contours of energy components within a pillar model
Received in revised form 29 July 2018 are plotted at different rockmass damage stages, and plastic strain work and released energy are pro-
Accepted 26 August 2018
posed as indicators of rockmass damage consequence. One pillar model under different loading stiffness
Available online 5 December 2018
is simulated to assess indicators of pillar burst and the resulting damages. The results show the rockmass
damage under soft loading stiffness has larger magnitude of plastic strain work and released energy than
Keywords:
that which is under stiff loading stiffness, indicating the rockburst consequence can be quantified with
Unstable rock failure
Rock burst
plastic strain work and released energy in numerical models. With the quantified rockburst consequence,
Energy mechanism preventative measures can be taken to avoid severe hazards to mine safety.
Numerical modeling Ó 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of China University of Mining & Technology. This is an open
Released energy access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction Cook and Salamon revealed that, when the stiffness of a loading
system is larger than the post-peak stiffness of the failed rock, the
With the increasing demand of mineral resources and depletion rock will fail in a violent and unstable manner [17,18]. The stiffness
of near-surface ores, the depths of underground mines have made of the loading system could be the surrounding rockmass of the
the mining activities one of mankind’s most dangerous types of target rock. A relatively soft loading system can store more elastic
work [1,2]. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) strain energy than a stiff loading system at the same peak strength
defines rockburst as ‘‘a sudden and violent failure of overstressed of the target rock. The post-peak stiffness of a rock is interpreted as
rock resulting in the instantaneous release of large amounts of the slope of the post-peak stress-strain behavior, which affects the
accumulated energy”. amount of required energy for failure. In theory, when the stored
The types of rockburst can be classified into three types: (1) elastic strain energy in the loading system provides more energy
strain burst, (2) pillar burst, and (3) fault slip [3]. Strain burst is than the required energy for the target rock failure, the rock will
the most common type of unstable rock failure in underground fail in an unstable mode [7–13,16–19].
openings, where the intensity and scale are usually smaller than By integrating the equations of different energy components
pillar burst and fault slip [1,4,5]. The cause of strain burst can range into UDEC software, the stored or released energy in each zone
from shattering of rock under high-stress concentration to buck- at each time step can be tracked and analyzed [20]. The energy
ling of discontinuities parallel to underground openings. The components to be discussed in this study include total strain
occurrence of pillar burst also depends on the stress and disconti- energy, elastic strain energy, plastic strain work, and instantaneous
nuity conditions in the rockmass, but pillar burst usually involves kinetic energy. Elastic strain energy results from the reversible
the rapid loss of strength in the core or foundation of a pillar [6–9]. deformation in rockmass, but if non-reversible plastic deformation
Fault slip or slip burst can be either slip along pre-existing discon- or damage occurs in the rockmass, some stored elastic strain
tinuities or shear failure in the rockmass, when the shear stress is energy or loading work will become plastic strain work [21–23].
larger than shear strength in the fault [10–12]. The consequence of Total strain energy is defined as the sum of elastic strain energy
fault slip can vary from very small rockmass damage to consequen- and plastic strain work, which is the amount of strain energy
tial rockmass damage, but large seismic magnitude does not stored in both reversible and non-reversible deformation in the
always result in large rockmass damage [13–15]. rockmass. Elastic strain energy is usually dissipated in plastic
strain work and released energy (kinetic energy) in the rockmass,
⇑ Corresponding author. and the magnitude of released energy depends on the surplus of
E-mail address: fwangmines@hotmail.com (F. Wang). elastic strain energy for plastic strain work [24–26].

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmst.2018.11.023
2095-2686/Ó 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of China University of Mining & Technology.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
94 F. Wang, R. Kaunda / International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 29 (2019) 93–97

Rockmass failure in compression or slip along discontinuities Table 2

can trigger seismicity, but mining-induced movements and seis- Strain-softening parameters applied to the rock model.

micity in wall rock does not necessarily cause localized rockmass Plastic shear strain Cohesion yield stress (MPa)
damage [4,27]. Seismicity cannot be used to reflect the degree of 0 37.5
local rockmass damage caused by rockbursting [4]. Quantifying 0.001 37
of rockmass damage will play a significant role in assessing the 0.02 32.5
rockburst consequence and analyzing the mechanisms of rock- 0.08 25
0.15 15
burst, so some methods, such as measuring displacement, counting 0.25 0.1
the number of plastic zones, and recording microseismic events,
have been put forwards to quantify the rockmass damage [28].
With the predicted rockburst damage, preventative measures can
be taken to avoid severe hazards to the mine safety in advance.
In this study, a theoretical underground rock pillar is used as an
example to study the rockburst consequence by quantifying the
damage with plastic strain work and released energy.

2. Numerical simulation of unstable pillar failure

2.1. Physical behaviors of a theoretical rock pillar

A rock pillar (6 m  4 m) with a mesh size of 0.2 m was devel-

oped in UDEC and loaded quasi-statically through two elastic Fig. 2. Change of vertical stress with strain (left) and loading time (right) in the
pillar.
beams (10 m in width) on either side (Fig. 1). To create different
pillar burst consequences, the length of the two elastic beams
increased from 5 to 30 m with a step of 5 m in the vertical direc- The rock pillar has a peak strength of 340 MPa, and vertical
tion, so that the beams had different magnitudes of stiffness. The stress-strain curves of the pillar between the different length of
roller boundaries were assigned to the sides of the beam, but the beams are plotted in Fig. 2a. Before the failure, the pillar has very
top and bottom surface of the model was loaded with a very small similar stress-strain behavior, but the pillar between longer beams
constant velocity (1.0  10 8 m/step) to eliminate the dynamic has larger vertical stress at the same magnitude of vertical strain
effects of loading. after the pillar peak strength. This post-peak stress-strain deviation
The mechanical properties of granite presented by Zhao and Cai of the pillar has been recognized as an indicator of unstable rock
was used as the starting point for the rock properties in the pillar failure by some researchers, and a larger deviation represents a
(Table 1) [29]. Post-peak behavior of the rock plays a significant more violent and unstable rock failure [16,30,31].
role in the mode of rock failure, but post-peak stress-strain curves The plot of vertical stress with loading time shows rapid stress
of the granite were not obtained from the laboratory. Therefore, reduction within the pillar after the pillar peak strength (Fig. 2b).
the post-peak stress-strain behavior of the granite is assumed in Since the boundary loading velocity is the same for all the six mod-
this study, which is similar to the assumed results by Manoucheh- els, it takes longer time for the pillar to reach peak strength when
rian and Cai [30]. Table 2 is the calibrated parameters of the strain- the pillar is between longer loading beams. After the peak strength,
softening behavior for the rock pillar in the model. the magnitude of stress reduction within the pillar increases with
the lengths of loading beams, where the stress reduction ranges
from 120 to 300 MPa during the short rock failure period. This
rapid stress reduction after pillar peak strength can be used as an
indicator of pillar burst [7,16].

2.2. Influence of loading system stiffness on pillar burst consequence

The change of energy components, including the total strain

energy, elastic strain energy, and plastic strain work, is tracked
during the quasi-statically loading process in numerical models.
Since the length of loading beams vary from 5 to 30 m, the influ-
ence of loading system stiffness on pillar failure can be analyzed
by comparing the change of energy in the models (Fig. 3).
Before the pillar peak strength, a large amount of elastic strain
Fig. 1. Geometry, mesh, and boundary conditions of the theoretical pillar model
energy and plastic strain work has been stored and created in the
and part of beams in UDEC.
models, respectively. A rapid decrement in elastic strain energy
and increment in plastic strain work can be observed in all the
Table 1 six models. In all the six models, elastic strain energy in the model
Physical and mechanical properties of the granite specimen is released in the form of plastic strain work and kinetic energy,
(granite data after the study by Zhao et al. [29,30]).
which explains why the decrement in elastic strain energy is
Parameter Granite always larger than the increment in plastic strain work. Since part
Density (kg/m3) 2650 of elastic strain energy can be dissipated into kinetic energy, the
Young’s modulus (GPa) 51 decrement in total strain energy can be observed in all six models.
Poisson’s ratio 0.27 After the pillar burst, the energy components continue to change
Friction angle (°) 40
due to the constant loading work from the top and bottom surface
UCS (MPa) 160
of the loading beams.
 F. Wang, R. Kaunda / International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 29 (2019) 93–97 95

Fig. 3. Energy transfer between energy components under the different length of beams.

When the length of beams increases from 5 to 30 m, more and

more elastic strain energy is stored in the model at the pillar peak
strength, but after pillar burst, less and less elastic strain energy is
left in the numerical models. However, the plastic strain work is
the same at the pillar peak strength in all models, but the pillar
between longer beams has a larger magnitude of increment in
plastic strain work during pillar burst.
During a pillar burst event, elastic strain energy becomes plastic
strain work and kinetic energy, so the decrement in elastic strain
work is larger than the increment in plastic strain work, resulting
in a decrement in total strain energy in the model. A rapid change
of elastic strain energy, plastic strain work, and total strain energy
also can be used as indicators of rockburst. With the decreasing of Fig. 4. Change of plastic strain work in the model with both loading time.
loading system stiffness in the models, more elastic strain energy
can be stored at the pillar peak strength, so a large magnitude of
plastic strain work and released energy is expected for pillar burst
will have larger increment in plastic strain work during the pillar
under soft loading systems.
burst, which confirms the soft loading system is a contributing fac-
tor to the occurrence of rockburst.
2.3. Quantification of rockburst consequence Total strain energy is defined as the sum of elastic strain energy
and plastic strain work, so a decrement in total strain energy
The rapid decrement in total strain energy and plastic strain means the decrement in elastic strain energy is larger than the
work can be used as not only indicators of rockburst but also as increment in plastic strain work during the pillar burst. Most of
potential indicators of rockburst intensity and consequence. When the elastic strain energy is dissipated into plastic strain work in
the pillar fails under different stiffness of loading systems, different the models, but a surplus of elastic strain energy will be dissipated
magnitudes of increment in plastic strain work and decrement in into kinetic energy [19,23]. Therefore, the decrement of total strain
total strain energy can be observed during the pillar failure energy equals the released energy in the form of kinetic energy.
process. The released energy (the decrement in total strain energy) after
Since plastic strain work is a parameter that quantifies the the pillar peak strength can be observed in all six models, and a pil-
amount of work of creating non-reversible deformation in the lar between longer beams has a larger magnitude of released
rockmass, the magnitude can stand for the degree of plastic defor- energy (see Fig. 5). Because this released energy is the energy
mation in the rockmass. The plot of plastic strain work within the source of instantaneous kinetic energy during the pillar burst pro-
pillar shows that all six models have the same plastic strain work cess, the magnitude is directly related to the intensity and violence
before the pillar failure, but the magnitude increases with the of pillar burst.
length of the loading beams after the pillar burst (Fig. 4). Since the maximum instantaneous kinetic energy is time-
The quantification of rockmass damage with plastic strain work dependent and time-sensitive, it cannot be used to indicate the
not only provides us an estimation of the rock burst consequence rockburst intensity with high accuracy, making the released energy
but is also an indicator to compare the rockburst consequence in as a better indicator of rock failure intensity. For example, the
different scenarios. It is clear that the pillars between longer beams decrement in total strain energy is 1 and 42 MJ for the pillar
96 F. Wang, R. Kaunda / International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 29 (2019) 93–97

3. Energy states within zones of the numerical model

The energy distribution in each zone of the model can be plotted

to show the energy state before and after the pillar burst. In this
study, the pillar between the beam length of 25 m is chosen as an
example to demonstrate the change of strain energy during pillar
burst. This pillar has a big decrement in elastic strain energy, incre-
ment in plastic strain work, and decrement in total strain energy
when it fails, so failure can be regarded as a typical pillar burst.
The loading times of 13.5 and 13.6 s correspond to the moments
just before pillar burst and just after pillar burst, respectively.
A great change of total strain energy distribution within the pil-
Fig. 5. Change of total strain energy in the model with loading time. lar can be observed before and after the pillar burst because a large
amount of elastic strain energy from the loading system is trans-
ferred into plastic strain work in the pillar (see Figs. 3 and 7).
Before the pillar burst, a larger amount of total strain energy lies
in the core and two sides of the pillar. However, the total strain
energy in the middle of the pillar disappears after the pillar burst,
and most of the total strain energy is concentrated on the core of
the pillar after the pillar burst. After the pillar burst, the magnitude
of total strain energy in some zones can be as much as four times of
that before pillar burst.
The distribution of elastic strain energy within each zone of the
pillar and part of the beams is plotted in Fig. 8. Before the pillar
burst, a large amount of elastic strain energy is concentrated in
the middle of the pillar, but very little elastic strain energy is in
Fig. 6. Change of instantaneous kinetic energy in the model with loading time. the two sides of the pillar, potentially caused by the wedge failure
in the pillar. After the pillar burst, the elastic strain energy decreases
to a very small magnitude, so the pillar has lost the strength and the
between the beam length of 10 and 20 m, respectively, while the elastic strain energy has become other forms of energy.
maximum kinetic energy for these two cases is 0.2 and 0.23 MJ The plastic strain work distribution within the pillar before and
(Figs. 5 and 6). Current numerical modeling results show that the after the pillar burst is plotted in Fig. 9. Before the pillar burst, the
maximum instantaneous kinetic energy can be influenced by the plastic strain work mainly centers around the shear zones on both
elastic strain energy density in the models, whose detail is beyond sides of the pillar, and the shear failure zones can explain why
the scope of this paper. there is nearly no elastic strain energy on two sides of the pillar

Fig. 7. Distribution of the total strain energy within zones of the pillar before and after pillar burst.

Fig. 8. Distribution of elastic strain energy within the pillar and part of beams before and after pillar burst.
 F. Wang, R. Kaunda / International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 29 (2019) 93–97 97

Fig. 9. Distribution of plastic strain energy within the pillar and part of beams before and after pillar burst.

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