Pre-feasibility investigation to provide an early warning of roof falls prior to support installation.

Abstract

This research report describes the investigation of the association of electromagnetic emissions with rock failure. The possible presence of electromagnetic emissions as a result of material or rock failure has tremendous potential for the development of techniques to provide early warnings of rock failure. In the mining industry, falls-of-ground do occur frequently because of roof failure in underground excavations, causing safety and production problems. Laboratory experiments to measure electromagnetic emissions from rock failure are difficult to conduct because of difficulties in eliminating external electromagnetic emissions from interfering in the experiment. This research project thus focussed on the measurement of electromagnetic emissions in a typical underground coal mining environment.