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Procedia Structural Integrity 48 (2023) 81–87

Second
Second International
International Symposium
Symposium on
on Risk
Risk Analysis
Analysis and
and Safety
Safety of
of Complex
Complex Structures
Structures and
and
Components (IRAS 2023)
Components (IRAS 2023)
The
The loading
loading and
and slenderness
slenderness ratio
ratio effect
effect on
on the
the failure
failure probability
probability of
of
pillars in an underground mine: case study
pillars in an underground mine: case study
Youcef
Youcef Cheikhaoui
Cheikhaouia,*,
a,
*, Djamel
Djamel Nettour
Nettoura,, Hamza
a
Hamza Cheniti
Chenitia, Salim Bensehamdia, Rachid
a
, Salim Bensehamdi
a
, Rachid
Chaib
Chaib
b
b
a
L3M- National Higher School of Mines and MetallurgyAmar Laskri, Annaba 23000, Algeria
a
L3M- National Higher School of Mines and MetallurgyAmar Laskri, Annaba 23000, Algeria
b
Transport Engineering and Environment Laboratory-Universityof Constantine 1, Constantine 25000, Algeria
b
Transport Engineering and Environment Laboratory-University of Constantine 1, Constantine 25000, Algeria

Abstract
Abstract
After digging a mining structure in a rock mass, a redistribution of stresses occurs around this mining structure. During this
After digging a mining structure in a rock mass, a redistribution of stresses occurs around this mining structure. During this
redistribution, the rocks tend towards a new equilibrium state and undergo certain deformations, which can become dangerous
redistribution, the rocks tend towards a new equilibrium state and undergo certain deformations, which can become dangerous
during the mine exploitation, or even turn into a major accident. Therefore, the study of stability in fractured rock masses, as well
during the mine exploitation, or even turn into a major accident. Therefore, the study of stability in fractured rock masses, as well
as the modelling of mining structures, requires a detailed description of the behavioural models and their mechanical properties.
as the modelling of mining structures, requires a detailed description of the behavioural models and their mechanical properties.
These mechanical properties are influenced by scale effects, or even depend on the volume considered. The objective of this article
These mechanical properties are influenced by scale effects, or even depend on the volume considered. The objective of this article
is to study the influence of the effect of the shape and the load applied in order to approve the evaluation of the characteristic values
is to study the influence of the effect of the shape and the load applied in order to approve the evaluation of the characteristic values
of the mechanical properties of the excavated rock masses. Even to pinpoint the probability of a rupture in a perspective sizing of
of the mechanical properties of the excavated rock masses. Even to pinpoint the probability of a rupture in a perspective sizing of
works and management of risks associated with the exploitation of mining resources (mines, quarries, drilling, etc.). The evaluation
works and management of risks associated with the exploitation of mining resources (mines, quarries, drilling, etc.). The evaluation
of the characteristic resistance of a pillar will be the main object of our research work. As a case study, we have taken the case of
of the characteristic resistance of a pillar will be the main object of our research work. As a case study, we have taken the case of
the Chaabet El Hamra underground mine in the city of Setif, Algeria.
the Chaabet El Hamra underground mine in the city of Setif, Algeria.
© 2023The
© 2023 The Authors.
Authors. Published
Published by ELSEVIER
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Keywords: Stability, Excavation, Probability of failure, Rock mass, Shape effect and mine
Keywords: Stability, Excavation, Probability of failure, Rock mass, Shape effect and mine

* Corresponding author. Tel.: /; fax: /.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: /; fax: /.
E-mail address: [email protected]
E-mail address: [email protected]

1. Introduction
1. Introduction
The main cause of ground pressure is the force of gravity, as the rock layers above compress the lower layers
The main cause of ground pressure is the force of gravity, as the rock layers above compress the lower layers
by their weight, which in turn resist this pressure. Under normal conditions, these forces are in equilibrium but the
by their weight, which in turn resist this pressure. Under normal conditions, these forces are in equilibrium but the
rocks are under stress (Kumar et al., 2018; Yang et al., 2015).
rocks are under stress (Kumar et al., 2018; Yang et al., 2015).

2452-3216 © 2023 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.

2452-3216 © 2023 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the IRAS 2023 organizers
Peer-review under responsibility of the IRAS 2023 organizers

2452-3216 © 2023 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the IRAS 2023 organizers
10.1016/j.prostr.2023.07.113
82 Youcef Cheikhaoui et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 48 (2023) 81–87
2 Cheikhaoui et al/ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2023) 000–000

. After the execution of a mining operation in the massif, a redistribution of the stresses occurs around this mining
structure. During this redistribution process, rocks tend to a new equilibrium state, undergoing certain deformations.
Therefore, the study of stability in fractured rock massifs, as well as the modeling of mining works require the
knowledge of behavior models and mechanical properties of these structures(Fan and Liu, 2017; Scholtès and Donzé,
2012). These mechanical properties are influenced by scale effects and even depend on the volume considered (Brady
and Brown, 2004; Morlier et al., 1989). This effect is defined by the influence of the sample size on the measurement
of a supposedly intrinsic size (Cheikhaoui et al., 2021a).
In light of the evidence of constant strength beyond a critical size, particularly the "geometry" effect, the empirically
observed decrease in volume strength would be a function of factors in the pillar system, rather than a material property
of the pillar. In this context, we aim to attest how is the evolution of the characteristic strength of a pillar in an
underground mine. The characteristic strength is understood in terms of the probability of exceeding a certain value
of compressive strength. An analytical formulation was used which was developed by Cheikhaoui et al (Cheikhaoui
et al., 2021a, 2021b) combining the Wei bull’s approach(Weibull, 1939) which takes into account scale effects and
Galvin's approach(GALVlN et al., n.d.) which takes into account the shape effects.
The objective of this paper is to study the influence of the effect of the shape and the stress applied to evaluate the
characteristic values of the mechanical properties of the excavated rock mass. Moreover, even to specify the probability
of failure in a perspective of dimensioning of the structures, or management of the risks associated with the extraction of
the resources (mines, quarries, boreholes, etc.), or with the development of the underground (rock cuttings, tunnels, etc.).
The evaluation of the characteristic resistance of a pillar will constitute the structuring case study of the paper. As a case
study, we have taken the case of the Chaabet El Hamra mine in the city of Setif, Algeria.

2. Behavior of a pillar under uniaxial loading

2.1. Failure modes of pillar

There is a great variation in the behavior of pillars at failure from one mine to another and even within a given
mine. This behavior is related to the shape of the pillars, the nature of the rock and the local geo-mechanical conditions.
According to (Brady and Brown, 2004), there are five main types of failure, figure 1, describe by (Brown, 1970;
Diederichs, 2002; Lunder and Pakalnis, 1997).
 Cracking and detachment of lateral flakes out: in the case of a relatively massive pillar/wall rock assembly with
no marked discontinuity, Figure 1.a
 An inclined through shear strip: in the case of pillars with a large launch figure 1.b
 Pillar dilatation produced by sliding along interfaces: in the case where pillars and surrounding rock are separated
by an interface marked by low shear strength, Figure 1.c
 The failure is oriented along the planes of weakness constituted by the discontinuities: in the case of pillars cut by
one or more families of fractures, figure 1.d
 An axial separation mechanism: in the case of pillars marked by the presence of schistosity or foliation planes
parallel to their height figure1.e.

Fig. 1. Failure modes of mine pillars according to their geomechanical conditions (Brady and Brown, 2004).
 Youcef Cheikhaoui
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et al/ Structural ProcediaProcedia
Structural00Integrity 48 (2023) 81–87
(2023) 000–000 833

2.2. The pillars’ loading

Budavari, presented the loading of mine pillars by taking a beam on 2 simple supports and a spring, loaded
uniformly across its span, figure2,(Ma et al., 2012). For the purpose of the example, he associates the beam with a
horizontally stratified mass, loaded by the effects of gravity, and the spring with a vertical pillar acting as a column
located in the center of the span. In this case, the spring is at rest if the deflection of the beam is zero. It will be loaded
only if the beam is deformed by deflection, figure 2.a.
In order to find out qualitatively the load on the spring when the beam is loaded (uniformly distributed load in the
case of figure 2.b, it is necessary to consider the deformability of the beam figure 2.c and of the spring, figure 2.d and
to analyze the partial diagrams of free bodies of this hyper static system). By analyzing this problem, we notice that
the load on the spring is a function of the stiffness of the two elements of the structure, the spring and the beam. Thus,
for a given loading of the beam, an increase in the stiffness of the spring will result in a greater proportion of the load
being taken by it. The previous example could be generalized by using several springs in parallel, of various
stiffnesses. Conceptually, the conclusions would remain similar. The load on each spring would be a function of the
deformation characteristics of the beam, its own stiffness, the stiffness of the other springs and the position of the
springs along the beam.

Fig. 2. Load transmission by deformation of the beam-spring system (Ma et al., 2012).

2.3. Tributary area theory TAT

This approach allows, from only a few data, to determine the load on a pillar. The tributary area theory (TAT)
assumes that after excavation, the pillar supports the weight of the ground contained in an imaginary prism,
extending from the excavation level to the free surface, Figure 3. The tributary area theory accepts that the average
load of the pillar can be obtained by the following equations (Brown and Brady, 1985):
For a pillar, the average load at the center of the pillar is defined by:
(𝑤𝑤0 +𝑤𝑤𝑝𝑝 )2
𝜎𝜎𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 = 𝜎𝜎𝑣𝑣 (1)
𝑤𝑤𝑝𝑝2

𝜎𝜎𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 : The load on the pillars calculated by the tributary area method, 𝑤𝑤0 : Room width, 𝑤𝑤𝑝𝑝 : Pillar width
If our ground consists of different layers of thickness ℎ i the vertical stress 𝜎𝜎𝑣𝑣 , of the initial state is defined by the
following equation:
𝜎𝜎𝑣𝑣 = ∑𝑛𝑛1 𝛾𝛾𝑖𝑖 ℎ𝑖𝑖 (2)
where σv is Blank vertical stress, γi Specific gravity for each layer I, hi Layer thickness.
84 Youcef Cheikhaoui et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 48 (2023) 81–87
4 Cheikhaoui et al/ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2023) 000–000

Fig. 3. Tributary area theory for wall pillars shown in longitudinal section(Brown and Brady, 1985).

If we define an overall extraction ratio rTAT:

𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒é𝑒𝑒
𝑟𝑟𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇 = (3)
𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡

(𝑤𝑤0 +𝑤𝑤𝑝𝑝 )2 −𝑤𝑤𝑝𝑝2

𝑟𝑟𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇 = (4)
(𝑤𝑤0 +𝑤𝑤𝑝𝑝 )2

𝑤𝑤𝑝𝑝2
1 − 𝑟𝑟𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇 = (𝑤𝑤 2 (5)
0 +𝑤𝑤𝑝𝑝 )

The average load σp at the center of the pillar can be written as follows:
1
𝜎𝜎𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 = 𝜎𝜎𝑣𝑣 1−𝑟𝑟 (6)
𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇

2.4. Probability of survival of a pillar

Formula 7, allows us to introduce the probabilistic distribution of defects and the probability of activation of these
defects, i.e. the probability of failure. If there is a series of defects, when one of these defects (the discontinuities) is
activated, failure occurs. The relationship proposed as an analytical approach to estimate the strength of a pillar such
as Rp = σf the stress to be applied for at least one of the defects is activated (the failure) (Cheikhaoui et al., 2021), so:
𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 (𝑣𝑣0 −𝑚𝑚)
𝑃𝑃𝑠𝑠 = 𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸[(𝑤𝑤⁄ℎ)𝑎𝑎 . 𝑣𝑣 −𝑚𝑚 )/(−𝑚𝑚𝜎𝜎𝑝𝑝 )]™‹–Š𝑎𝑎 = 𝑤𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 (7)
𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 ( ⁄ℎ )
𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒
𝑤𝑤
where: 𝑣𝑣0 : Specimen volume (m3). 𝑣𝑣: Pillar volume (m3). 𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒⁄ℎ : Sample slenderness. 𝑤𝑤⁄ℎ : Pillar slenderness. 𝑚𝑚:
𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒
Weibull's dispersion parameter. 𝜎𝜎𝑝𝑝 : The applied stress (MPa).
As the exploitation of the mine is done by rooms and pillars, the stress 𝜎𝜎𝑝𝑝 (MPa) applied to the center of the pillar
is related to the extraction ratio τ and 𝜎𝜎𝑣𝑣 (Mp>Pa) the vertical stress related to the upper ground load.
3. Case study
3.1. Determination of pillar strength
The strength formula of a zinc pillar (Chaabet El Hamra case) found using Weibull parameters is written as
follows(Cheikhaoui et al., 2021):
𝑅𝑅𝑝𝑝 (𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃) = 103.61 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙(1/𝑃𝑃𝑠𝑠 )0.42 (𝑤𝑤/ℎ)5.15 𝑉𝑉 −0.42 ሺƒሻ (8)
The formula for the strength of a zinc pillar based on the probability of survival P S = 97% means 3% risk of failure,
is written as follows:

𝑅𝑅𝑝𝑝(0.97) = 23.60 (𝑤𝑤⁄ℎ)5.15 𝑉𝑉 −0.42ሺƒሻ (9)

 Youcef Cheikhaoui et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 48 (2023) 81–87 85
Cheikhaoui et al/ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2023) 000–000 5

3.2. Determination of the probability of survival of the pillars

The equation proposed as an analytical approach to estimate the strength of a pillar such that Rp = σf the stress to
be applied for at least one of the defects is activated (failure), thus:
𝑅𝑅𝑝𝑝(0.97) = 23.60 (𝑤𝑤⁄ℎ)5.15 𝑉𝑉 −0.42 ሺ•ሻ (10)

Where:𝑣𝑣: Pillar volume (m3). 𝑤𝑤⁄ℎ : Pillar slenderness. 𝜎𝜎𝑝𝑝 : The applied stress (MPa). An example of the results
on block 5/1 in a depth of 106.5 meter and a height of the fixed pillars equal 2 meters (see Appendix A).

Fig. 4. The disposition of the pillars located in the 5/1 panel

We note by comparing the results obtained that there is an intense relation of dependence between the probability
of failure and the slenderness ratio as well as the extraction rate (Appendix 1). It is clear that there is an inverse relation
between the two parameters. For example the pillar n° 20 of width w=1.5m and height h=2 m (slender) with an
extraction rate τ =90% with a probability of failure P f=0.99 (failed pillar). On the other hand the pillar n° 29 of width
w=3 m and height h=2 m (less slender pillar) with an extraction rate τ =78%, has a probability of failure P f =0.12 (very
stable), figure 5.

Fig. 5. Photos of two pillars of different stability in the mine Chaabat el Hamra

We can see that the variation of the probability of failure as a function of the slenderness ratio W/H. As an example,
the 29 pillars of block 5-1 presented in figure 4 highlight the phenomenon of confinement linked to the increase of the
W/H ratio which reinforces the probability of survival of the pillars so that the least slender pillar is the most likely to
86 Youcef Cheikhaoui et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 48 (2023) 81–87
6 Cheikhaoui et al/ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2023) 000–000

collapse. The curve in figure 6 clearly shows the decrease of the probability of failure with the increase of the W/H
ratio. From this, it can be pronounced that the probability of survival as a function of increasing the W⁄H shape ratio.

1
probability of failure
0.8

0.6 R² = 0,9829

0.4

0.2

0
0 1 2 3 4
W/H ratio

Fig. 6. The variation of the probability of failure as a function of the W/H ratio

Thus, a parametric study was performed according to our case study such that the dispersion parameter m=2.36,
the specimen strength δ0=103.6 MPa, The load to be applied S=3 MPa. The calculation results are presented in curves
7 and 8

Fig. 7. a. The evolution of the survival probability with increasing shape ratio w/h for different volumes under an applied load σp=3 (Mpa). b.
The evolution of the probability of survival as a function of the increase of the shape ratio w/h for different loads to be applied for a pillar of
volume= 50 m3.

According to the calculations presented in the curves of figure 7a, we notice that there is a critical value of the W/H
ratio for each volume of the pillar where the survival probability stabilizes at one for a small volume; however, it
stabilizes quickly with a small W/H ratio. As an example, we have:
 For v=18 m3 no evolution beyond W/H=1
 For v=100 m3 no evolution beyond W/H=1.5
For more precision, we present in figure 7b, the variation of the survival probability as a function of the increase
of the shape ratio w/h for different loads to be applied for a pillar of volume= 50 m3.
It should also be noted that the load is another factor that must be taken into consideration in the choice of pillar
design. The same findings were raised for loads. The probability of survival stabilizes at 1 for a small load, however
it stabilizes quickly with a small W/H ratio, thus:
 For S=3 MPa no evolution beyond W/H=1.5
 For S=49 MPa no evolution beyond W/H=2.5
 Youcef Cheikhaoui et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 48 (2023) 81–87 87
Cheikhaoui et al/ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2023) 000–000 7

4. Conclusion

One can conclude from the presented results that there is an intense dependence relation between the probability
of failure and the slenderness ratio and the extraction rate. It is clear that there is an inverse relation between the
variation of the probability of failure and the slenderness ratio W/H.
In addition, the load and volume of the pillar are factors that must be considered when selecting the dimensions of
pillar, since there is a certain value of W/H where the probability of survival stabilizes at 1, based on the applied load.
Therefore, in order to conduct optimal mining and better extraction of ore, the choice of pillar size is necessary.
The choice of the optimal critical size of the pillars enables their safe operation and good performance of the mining,
even high recovery rate safely.

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the people and organizations in particular the ENOF Company
of the Chaabet El Hamra mine who contributed to the publication of this research paper.

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