International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 64 (2013) 112–121

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International Journal of
Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijrmms

Deep-hole pre-split blasting mechanism and its application for

controlled roof caving in shallow depth seams
Fangtian Wang a,b, Shihao Tu a,b,n, Yong Yuan a,b, Yufeng Feng a,b,
Fang Chen a,b, Hongsheng Tu a,b
a
School of Mines, Key Laboratory of Deep Coal Resource Mining, Ministry of Education of China, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou,
Jiangsu 221116, China
b
State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Mine Safety, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221008, China

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The shallow depth coal seams mined in the Shendong Mining Area has led to large area roof weighting
Received 15 August 2012 frequently due to large thickness, high tensile strength and small overlying load of the main roof. As
Received in revised form a result, many accidents have happened including hydraulic support being iron-bound, water inrush
13 April 2013
through the penetrating cracks along coal wall, and potentially induce large area residual pillars
Accepted 20 August 2013
Available online 19 September 2013
instability and even wind blast damage particularly in the conditions beneath a room mining goaf. To
prevent the large area roof weighting accidents, deep-hole pre-split blasting technology for controlled
Keywords: roof caving is a suitable method and has been widely applied in the mines, and many in situ trials have
Shallow depth seams already achieved a sound performance. According to the field conditions of the shallow depth coal seams,
Deep-hole pre-split blasting
this paper employs cylindrical cavity expansion theory to calculate the three blasting-induced divisions
Controlled roof caving
including break zone, fracture zone and elastic vibration zone. The software of LS-DYNA3D was applied
LS-DYNA3D
Room mining goaf to establish a deep-hole pre-split blasting model, which presented the rock stress field and the break
scope affected by the high energy explosion stress wave. The simulation results revealed the blasting for
controlled roof caving mechanism and also optimized the blasting parameters. The field observations
showed that, with the application of deep-hole pre-split blasting technology in Shigetai Mine, Shendong
Mining Area, the first main roof weighting length was about 17.4 m, and neither a hydraulic support
being iron-bound nor a serious roof subsidence in the form of step convergence in the mining face
happened during the first weighting period. The field application of deep-hole pre-split blasting for
controlled roof caving has achieved the expected effects.
& 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Shallow depth coal seams are widely spread in the Shendong
Mining Area, which is located in the Northwestern region of China.
Shendong Mining Area's shallow depth seams have three big char-
acteristics: shallow depth, thin bed rocks and thick unconsolidated
quaternary overlying layers, thus the strata structure and ground
pressure behavior have some particularities, compared with ordinary
coal seams [1–3]. Due to large thickness, high tensile strength and low
overlying load of the main roof, the first roof weighting of the longwall
face is extremely violent. The weighting length, in most cases, is
greater than 35 m. As a result, various accidents have happened
including hydraulic support iron-bound and water inrush through
the penetrating cracks along coal wall, and potentially induce large
n
Corresponding author at: School of Mines, Key Laboratory of Deep Coal
Resource Mining, Ministry of Education of China, China University of Mining and
Technology, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221116, China. Tel./fax: þ 86 516 83590502.
E-mail address: tsh-cumt@163.com (S. Tu).
area residual pillars instability and even wind blast damage particu-
larly in the conditions of beneath a room mining goaf. The phenom-
enon mentioned above bring a serious threat to safe mining in the
seams at shallow depth, thus effective measures must be undertaken
to prevent these disasters [4–8].
The primary measure to prevent large area roof weighting is
to weaken roof rock mass strength by changing its mechanical
condition. At present, the main control technologies are deep-hole
blasting, water injection for softening rock mass, and backfilling in
the mined-out area [9,10]. Many reports show that deep-hole
blasting technology is an effective measure for roof caving and has
been already widely applied in Chinese mines [11]. Numerical
simulation and physical simulation in the laboratory have been
undertaken to optimize the blasting borehole depth and the roof
caving length, and some notable achievements were made [6,8].
But so far, the mechanism of deep-hole blasting technology for
controlled roof caving, in respect of the shallow depth seams
beneath a room mining goaf, remains to be studied systematically.
Combined with the shallow depth seams geological conditions in

1365-1609/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmms.2013.08.026
 F. Wang et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 64 (2013) 112–121 113

Shigetai Mine, Shendong Mining Area, this paper uses the theore-
tical analysis and the software of LS-DYNA3D numerical simula-
tion to uncover the deep-hole pre-split blasting mechanism for
controlled roof caving, thence presents the roof caving design. The
results help to enable safe mining in the shallow depth seams.
2. Large area roof weighting analysis
Large area roof weighting generally happens in the high tensile
strength rock, such as malmstone and conglomerate, the bedding,
jointing and fracture are poorly developed at these strata, and
form an integral thick plate structure with high tensile strength
[12]. With the increase of longwall face advance length, the hard
roof hanging area increases accordingly, due to the effect of the
overlying strata load and its gravity, the rock strata bending and
sinking until the bending stress is greater than its tensile strength
limit. Fracture extension and new broken fractures will arise, and
with the continued development, the fracture will go up through
the roof strata entirely, i.e. main roof stratum has broken and first
weighting happens. In addition, with a large area roof breaking
and caving the movement will result in dynamic shock and even
wind blast damage [11].
Taking the 131203 longwall panel in Shigetai Mine (Shendong
Mining Area) as an example, the longwall panel has a width of 150 m
and a length of 650 m, the 3-1-2 Coal Seam is the mined seam, which
has a thickness of 3.0 m and dip angle of 1–31. The 3-1-2 Coal Seam is
beneath the 3-1-1 Coal Seam with a distance about 6.0 m, and the 3-
1-1 Coal Seam was mined by room mining method with residual
pillar width of 6.0 m and room width of 6.0 m before 2000, but the
mine operators did not consider the safe exploitation of the lower
seam. At present, it is not safe to access to the room mining goaf
during the longwall mining of the 3-1-2 Coal seam. The main roof
above the room mining goaf is malmstone with a thickness of 14.5 m.
The stratigraphic column is shown in Fig. 1. The structure of the
longwall panel mining in the shallow depth seam beneath a room
mining goaf is shown in Fig. 2.
The main roof is clamped between the overlying strata and the
residual pillars before the first weighting without controlled
caving, thus the structure can be simplified to a clamped beam
model. The elasticity mechanics theory is applied to establish a
both ends clamped beam model [13], as shown in Fig. 3a.
According to the maximum tensile strength criterion, the struc-
ture break first comes up in the middle of the beam, as shown in
Fig. 3b. Thus the limit safe length of the rock beam, in the conditions
of both ends clamped, can be expressed by the following function:
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi

½s 1
Ls r 2h  ð1Þ
nq 5
where Ls is rock beam's limit safe length, m; h is the main roof's
thickness, 14.5 m; s is the roof stratum's tensile strength, 3.3 MPa; n
is safety factor, 1.5; and q the overlying strata's load, 1.2 MPa.
Based on the physical and mechanical parameters of rock mass at
the 131203 longwall face, it can be shown that the first roof
weighting length is Ls ¼37.1 m. In practice at the 131202 longwall
face, the first roof weighting length was around 38.6 m. It has led to
hydraulic support iron-bound, obvious subsidence in the form of step
convergence in the roof structure and serious floor-heave in the
roadways of mining induced abutment pressure scope, and is likely
to result in residual pillars instability and even wind blast damage in
the conditions beneath a room mining goaf. Therefore, measures
must be carried out to prevent large area roof weighting accidents.
3. Mechanical analysis of the blasting for controlled roof
caving
Borehole blasting can be used to break and cut off the roof
stratum impulsively, this will change the clamped state of the
main roof before first roof weighting, i.e. change the roof break
type from a both ends clamped rock beam structure to a cantilever
beam break structure, similar to the calculation of roof stratum's
period weighting length.
Rock blasting and breaking are affected by two actions: dynamic
actions by shock wave and quasi-static actions by detonation gas.
These two effects have different break influences upon the rock
mass, varying with the rock strength and the charging conditions.
The process of blasting and breaking on the rock medium is
normally divided into two stages: dynamic action of shock wave

Stratigraphic Average
Depth/m Lithology Lithological column Annotation
order thickness/ m
1 18.0 18.0 Aeolian sand

2 13.0 31.0 Packsand and glutenite

Sandy mudstone and
3 8.1 39.1 packsand

4 0.7 39.8 2-1 Coal seam

5 0.9 40.7 Sandy mudstone

6 0.6 41.3 2-2 Coal seam

7 2.6 43.9 Sandy mudstone

8 0.4 44.3 2-3 Coal seam

9 14.5 58.8 Malmstone Main roof

10 2.7 61.5 3-1-1 Coal seam Room mining

11 6.0 67.5 Sandy mudstone Immediate roof

12 3.0 70.5 3-1-2 Coal seam Longwall mining

Sandy mudstone and
13 27.0 97.5 packsand

Fig. 1. Stratigraphic column of Shigetai Mine.

114 F. Wang et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 64 (2013) 112–121

Loading Stratum

Main Roof
Roof Break
Pillar

Immediate Roof

3-1-2 Coal Seam

Fig. 2. Longwall mining in the shallow depth seam beneath a room mining goaf.

Fig. 3. Clamped beam mechanical analysis. (a) Initial structure model and
(b) Broken structure model.

and quasi-static pressure of detonation gas [14–16]. In accordance

with the rock blasting characteristics, cylindrical cavity expansion Fig. 4. Rock divisions induced by blasting.
theory can be applied to analyze the stress distribution in the
explosion induced elastic and plastic regions [17]. Linear charge
blasting generates high-pressure detonation gas, which has shock and ρ0, ρ are the density of the explosive and the rock mass
action to the borehole wall while the powerful shock wave spreads respectively, kg/m3; Cp, D are the sound velocity in the rock mass
out into the rock mass, and the rock mass destruction features have and the explosion velocity respectively, m/s; scd is the rock
obvious subarea characteristics varying with the distance from the dynamic uniaxial compressive strength, MPa, and it has the
explosive location. Based on the break degree of the rock mass, the following relationship with the static uniaxial compressive
blasting induced subarea can be divided into three partitions: I- strength, scd ¼ ε1=3 sc , ε is the strain rate, 10 s  1; α is the load
break zone, II-fracture zone and III-elastic vibration zone. The transmission attenuation index; b is the lateral stress coefficient;
blasting subareas characteristics are shown in Fig. 4 [18,19]. and md is the rock dynamic Poisson's ratio, which is equivalent to
The main characteristics of the blasting induced subareas are as 0.8 m in the loading rate range of Engineering Blasting; K ¼ rb/rc is
follows [19]: the radial decouple coefficient; (rb,rc) are the blasting hole radius
The Break Zone: the break zone is also named crushed zone or and the explosive package radius, mm; le is the axial charging
compression zone, which has a small radius. In the conditions of coefficient; n is the increasing pressure coefficient when the
columnar decouple charge, the break zone radius is: detonation product swelling and colliding with the borehole wall,
!1=α from laboratory experiment, n ¼10; γ is the swelling adiabatic
pffiffiffi
2ρ0 D2 nK 2γ le B index of the detonation product, in most cases, γ ¼3.
Rc ¼ rb ð2Þ The Fracture Zone: this zone is outside the break zone. In the
16scd
decouple charge condition, the fracture zone radius is
where pffiffiffi !1=β pffiffiffi !1=α
8 2ρC
2sR B 2ρ0 D2 nK 2γ le B
> A ¼ ρC p þ ρp D Rp ¼ rb ð3Þ
>
> 2std 16scd
>
> q ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
0
>
>
< B ¼ ð1 þbÞ2 þ ð1 þ b2 Þ2μ ð1μ Þð1bÞ2
d d where std is the uniaxial dynamic tensile strength, MPa; sR is the
> μ
> b ¼ 1dμ radial stress in the interface between
>
>
> d pffiffiffi the break zone and the
>
> fracture zone, MPa, sR ¼ sr jr ¼ Rc ¼ ð 2scd =BÞ; β is the stress wave
: α ¼ 2μd
1μ d
attenuation index, β ¼ ð23μd =1μd Þ.
 F. Wang et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 64 (2013) 112–121 115

The Elastic Vibration Zone: outside the fracture zone, the rock Table 1
mass has no rupture with the action of the shock wave and Properties of explosive and JWL state equation.
the remnant detonation gas, but particle vibration exists, and the
ρ0/kg m  3 D/m s  1 A/GPa B/GPa R1 R2 ω E0/GPa
elastic vibration zone radius can be expressed as the following
estimation formula [20]: 1000 3600 214.4 0.182 4.2 0.9 0.15 4.192
pffiffiffiffi
Rs ¼ ð1:5  2:0Þ 3 q′ ð4Þ
where q′ is the explosive load per unit volume rock, 2.93 kg/m3,
thus the radius of the elastic vibration zone is about 2.1–2.9 m. Table 2
According to the field conditions in Shigetai Mine and the Mechanical parameters of rock in the model.
laboratory experiments results, the following parameters can be
obtained for the equations mentioned above: ρ0 ¼ 1000 kg/m3, Ρ/kg m  3 Ey/GPa m s0/MPa Etan/GPa sc/MPa sst/MPa C/s p

D¼3600 m/s, ρ ¼2500 kg/m3, Cp ¼ 3300 m/s, m¼ 0.25, sc ¼ 33.0 MPa, 2500 28.7 0.25 35 30 33 3.3 2.5 4
std ¼ 3.3 MPa, rc ¼ 25 mm, rb ¼ 37.5 mm, and le ¼1.0. Integrating the
above data into the Eqs. (2) and (3), it can be calculated that the radius
of the break zone and the fracture zone are about 651.3 mm and
2388.1 mm, respectively, i.e. the effective damage diameter of the
single-hole blasting is about 6078.8 mm. Because the dip angle of the
deep-hole is about 501, and the borehole spacing is about d¼ 6078.8/
sin 501¼7935.3 mm, i.e. the borehole spacing should be around 8.0 m
in the blasting design.

4. Numerical simulation

Numerical simulation of the blasting process plays an increas-

ingly significant role in the analysis of blasting mechanics. The
explicit dynamic analysis software of LS-DYNA3D is one of
the most effective tools to analyze the nonlinear impact dynamic
problems, which can be used to simulate the explosion process
and to optimize the blasting parameters, as well as to improve the
blasting effect [21,22]

4.1. Explosive state equation and simulation model

The LS-DYNA3D uses Jones–Wilkens–Lee (JWL) state equation

to describe the relationship between the pressure and the volume
Fig. 5. Deep-hole pre-split blasting model.
of the high-energy explosive detonation product. The function to
illustrate the relationship of pressure and specific volume in the
explosive detonating process is [23,24]:
where s0 is the initial yield stress; ε is the stain rate; c and p are the
   
ω R1 V ω R2 V ωE0 Cowper–Symonds strain rates, respectively; εef f
p is the effective plastic
P ¼ A 1 e þ B 1 e þ ð5Þ
R1 V R2 V V strain; Ep is the kinematic hardening modulus, Ep ¼ EyEtan/(Ey Etan),
here Etan is the tangent modulus. Combined with the site conditions in
where P is the detonation product unit pressure; V is the detona-
Shigetai Mine, the rock mechanical parameters are shown in Table 2.
tion product relative volume; E0 is the detonation product initial
Based on the field conditions, a LS-DYNA3D simulation model,
internal energy density; and A, B, R1, R2 and ω are the material
with an effective borehole spacing of 6.0 m, was established to
constants determined by the blasting experiments.
analyze the roof rock stress–strain response process of the explosion
According to the field conditions and some related research results
dynamic load action, and to uncover the deep-hole pre-split blasting
[24,25], the experiment adopts the Class-2 coal mine permissible
mechanism for controlled roof caving. The geometry size of the
emulsion explosive. The charge parameters and JWL state equation
model is length  width  height¼2200 cm  1350 cm  1000 cm,
parameters are listed in Table 1.
the borehole radius is 2.5 cm, and the borehole axial length is
The rock mass stain is high near the explosive detonation center, it
1350 cm, the model structure is shown in Fig. 5. To eliminate the
is proper to use a plastic hardening material model, which includes
influences from the borders to the blasting effect, non-reflection
the strain rate effect. Therefore, the rock material model adopted in
boundary constraints were applied to the periphery.
the simulation is a kinematic hardening plastic model (MAT-PLASTIC-
KINEMATIC), which is an anisotropy kinematic hardening and iso-
4.2. Simulation process and results analysis
tropic kinematic hardening mixed model, relevant with the strain rate
and also considers the material failure effect. The hardening para-
Importing the simulation results from the LS-DYNA3D solver to
meters β can be varied (β ¼ 0 means only kinematic hardening,
the LS-PREPOST processor, the whole process of the main roof
0o β o1 means mixed hardening and β ¼1 means only isotropic
stress field in response to the deep-hole pre-split blasting impact
hardening) to adjust the isotropic hardening degree and the kinematic
can be illustrated by adjusting the simulation time option. The
hardening degree. Thus the effect of strain rate on the strength can be
effective stress (Von Mises stress) distributions in the rock mass
analyzed by the Cowper–Symonds model, and the yield stress–strain
varying with the operate time in the front view are shown in Fig. 6.
rate relationship is [21]
 Fig. 6 indicates that the effective stress wave action range is about
ε1=p 
sy ¼ 1 þ ðs0 þ βEp εef f 0.86 m after explosives detonation 39.5 ms. This range is almost the
p Þ ð6Þ
c break zone nearby the borehole. After detonation 129.5 ms, the
116 F. Wang et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 64 (2013) 112–121
effective stress wave action range increases to 1.43 m, and this area
includes the break zone and the partial fracture zone. As the tensile
strength of the rock is far less than the compressive strength, the rock
mass will be yielded and damaged when the blasting induced effective
stress exceeds its tensile strength limit, and then forms a fracture
developed zone. After detonation 639.8 ms, the effective stress wave
action range is about 2.29 m, and till to 2528.6 ms, the action range is
up to 3.55 m, the adjacent blasting stress wave has superposition, then
the rock mass has opposite direction of vibration response. This effect
enables the rock to be yielded and generates some weak interface
inclining to yield and break, which helps the main roof break and
collapse easily.
The effective stress distributing in the top view varying with the
process time are shown in Fig. 7. The figure illustrates that the
effective stress wave is generated at the initial detonation spot
initially, and then spread to all around points. With the increase of
the detonation time, the effective stress wave action scope is
increasing accordingly at both radial and axial directions. The spread
in the radial direction enables the blasting induced damage scope
enlarging between the adjacent boreholes. Meanwhile, the evolution
Fig. 6. Pre-split blasting effective stress distribution (Front view). (a) 39.5 μs, (b)129.5 μsm (c) 639.8 μs, (d)1299.3 μs (e)2528.6 μs and (f)3079.1 μs.
of the axial direction indicates that the detonation spread from the
initial point to the end point. After detonation 1079.5 ms, the
detonated explosive is greater than one half of the total quantity,
and after detonation 2070.0 ms, the three boreholes have totally
detonated and the effective stress wave action range in the radial
direction has already exceeded 3.52 m, the superposition effect of the
adjacent boreholes blasting induced stress wave spurring the yield
effect and the native fracture expanding in the main roof.
The LS-DYNA3D simulation results illustrate that the stress evolu-
tion regularity of the rock mass is affected by the high-energy
explosive blasting, and also reveal the spatial-temporal characteristics
of the roof yield and damage. At the same time, the results also
indicate that the effective borehole spacing of 6.0 m is an optimized
design, and offers a rational parameter to the field experiment.
4.3. Discrete element analysis for controlled roof caving
To compare the roof control effect between the controlled roof
caving model and the no-measure undertaken model, the discrete
element program UDEC has been used to establish and analyze the
 F. Wang et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 64 (2013) 112–121
Fig. 7. Pre-split blasting effective stress distribution (Top view). (a)59.6 μs, (b)109.3 μs, (c)589.3 μs, (d)1079.5 μs, (e)1669.8 μs and (f)2070.0 μs.
two models. The properties of the coal seams and the rock strata
are determined by the field geological conditions and the labora-
tory mechanical tests. To eliminate the boundary effect, a length of
40 m coal pillars have been left at both borders, and the designed
excavation length of the longwall face is 170 m, the coal seams in
this model are typical shallow depth seams, so the upper bound-
ary should reach the surface. Therefore, the model dimension is
length  height ¼250 m  100 m. In terms of the boundary con-
straints, the left and the right borders restrict the horizontal
displacement and the lower bounder restricts the vertical dis-
placement, respectively. The constitutive equation adopted in this
model is Mohr–Coulomb criterion.
The longwall face is mining in a shallow depth seam, which is
beneath a room mining goaf with short distance, and the room mining
method is designed to excavate a 6 m width (length) room and leave a
6 m width (length) pillar to control roof. To simulate properly, the
Support Element has been used as a support structure to control roof.
The overlying strata movement characteristics are shown in Fig. 8.
When the longwall face has been excavated 10 m, the immediate
roof is in a stable state. When excavated 20 m, the immediate roof of
117
the no blasting model starts to break and cave, then the upper residual
pillars fall into the goaf, but in the controlled roof caving model, the
immediate roof and the upper pillar cave, and the main roof start to
break and sink, i.e. the first roof weighting happens. However, it is
different from the normal first weighting characteristics, after the
measure of the controlled roof caving undertaken, the main roof
breaks along the blasting induced break zone, which leads to an
apparent sunken pit on the surface corresponding to the open-off cut.
Because the break length of the main roof is less than 20 m, which is a
low value, the support is in a stable state, and there is no accident of
hydraulic support iron-bound. The results indicate that deep-hole pre-
split blasting for controlled roof caving has achieved the desired
purpose. When the longwall face has been excavated 30 m, the
immediate roof is caving continually and the main roof is still in a
stable state in the no blasting model, but in the controlled roof caving
model, the main roof break and cause coalesced open cracks along the
pillars edge, the support is just right located beneath a pillar, so the
main roof arch structure load affects the immediate roof, and the
support bears a high compressive pressure, which needs a corre-
sponding high support resistance to prevent serious subsidence along
118 F. Wang et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 64 (2013) 112–121

Fig. 8. Contrast simulation results of overlying strata movement. (a) No blasting-Excavation 10 m, (b) Pre-blasting-Excavation 10 m, (c) No blasting-Excavation 20 m,
(d) Pre-blasting-Excavation 20 m, (e) No blasting-Excavation 30 m, (f) Pre-blasting-Excavation 30 m, (g) No blasting-Excavation 40 m and (h) Pre-blasting-Excavation 40 m.

coal wall. When excavated about 40 m, the main roof breaks and falls
into the goaf in the no blasting model. As the first weighting length is
too long, the overlying strata load on the support is too high, it results
in the support instability, and even leads to an accident of hydraulic
support iron-bound, which is adverse to the longwall face mining
safely.
The UDEC simulation results indicate that the main roof first
weighting length can be reduced obviously after the application of
the deep-hole pre-split blasting technology for controlled roof
caving, which has almost the same value to the period weighting
length. It helps the roof control to avoid large area roof caving and
other relevant accidents, which is of significance to the safe
mining.
5. Field applications
According to the roof weighting length calculations and the
controlled roof caving simulations mentioned above, to prevent
the accidents of the huge shock load affects to the support from
the first weighting and to reduce the ground pressure behavior
intensity, deep-hole pre-split blasting technology for controlled
 F. Wang et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 64 (2013) 112–121
Fig. 9. Blasting borehole layout for controlled roof caving. (a) Plane and section profile of the blasting boreholes and (b) Magnification of the borehole go through room
mining goaf.
roof caving was carried out at the 131203 longwall mining face,
Shigetai Mine.
5.1. Blasting design
The drilling rig of BZY-160/460 was employed to drill the deep-
holes in the open-off cut beneath a room mining goaf. It is easy to
use a diameter of ∅113 mm drill bit to go through the coal pillars
and rock till to the designed depth. However, some boreholes go
through the goaf in the 3-1-1 coal seam, it is hard to reach the end
of the borehole at one time, so a “Three Step Drilling” strategy was
proposed to solve the problem. The procedure is illustrated as
follows in detail: Firstly, use a diameter of ∅113 mm drill bit to
drill up to the top boundary of the immediate roof. Secondly, use a
diameter of ∅89 mm seamless steel tube to go through the goaf
and contact with the 3-1-1 seam roof. Lastly, use a diameter of
∅75 mm drill bit to drill through the main roof till to the designed
depth. The drill boreholes are required to be drilled straightly to
119
ensure charge normally. The layout of the drilling boreholes is
shown in Fig. 9.
The distance from the drilling borehole center to the open-off
cut wall is about 2.5 m, the boreholes of No. 1 and No. 2 are
paralleled drilled, the spacing between these two boreholes is
1.0 m, the spacing is 10.0 m between No. 2 and No. 3, and the rest
boreholes spacing are same to 8.0 m. The angles of No.1 and No.
2 boreholes are 501, inclined from the haulage roadway to the
return air roadway, and the rest boreholes have the same angles
but opposite direction. The total length of the borehole is 18.5 m,
and the depth in vertical direction is 14.3 m.
The blasting boreholes use continuous couple charging method in
forward direction, once-charging and blasting with short delay. The
trial uses the Class-2 coal mine permissible emulsion explosive, the
explosive package dimension is: diameter  length¼ ∅50 mm 
580 mm, and a diameter of ∅63 mm PVC drivepipe has been used
to put the explosive into the blasting hole. The charging coefficient is
about 0.65–0.80, and the charging quantity is about 2.93 kg per meter.
120 F. Wang et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 64 (2013) 112–121

Fig. 10. In-situ drilling operation.

Fig. 11. Support working resistance and roof weighting length curves.

The tamping plug is made by yellow mud with a filling coefficient of

0.20–0.35. The profile of the drilling site is shown in Fig. 10.

5.2. Effect analysis

According to the field observations at the 131203 longwall face,

Subsidence depth
as shown in Fig. 11, the first weighting length of the main roof is
about 17.4 m after the application of deep-hole pre-split blasting
technology for controlled roof caving. This value is far less than the
Advancing direction
first weighting length without blasting measures, but has the same
level to the period weighting length. The field observations were
also undertaken at the adjacent 131201 longwall face before,
which indicated that the first weighting length was about 38.6 m
without the application of deep-hole pre-split blasting technology.
The main roof has broken and caved within the scope of
Fig. 12. Surface subsidence corresponding of the open-off cut.
blasting damage zone, and the overlying strata have been broken
and sunk till to the surface, therefore a sunken pit with 9.2 m
width and 0.6 m depth, similar to a rectangle, was formed in the technology. These observations show that the deep-hole pre-split
surface corresponding to the open-off cut. The photograph of the blasting technology for controlled roof caving has achieved the
surface subsidence after the application of deep-hole pre-split expected effect.
blasting is shown in Fig. 12.
The records from the hydraulic support working resistance
real-time monitoring system also indicate that the pressure
intensities of the first roof weighting and the period weighting 6. Conclusions
are approximately the same value, and the weighting intensity is
relative small. As a result, there is no accident of hydraulic support Based on the geological conditions of the shallow depth coal
iron-bound, no serious step subsidence along coal wall, no serious seams in Shigetai Mine, Shendong Mining Area, the first weighting
water inrush through the penetrating cracks along coal wall, and length of the main roof is about 37.1 m, which is very big, and may
no large area residual pillars instability and wind blast damage lead to large area roof caving accidents. It is indispensable to take
happened in the conditions beneath a room mining goaf. Thus the some measures to reduce the first roof weighting length and
longwall face advances smoothly after the practice of blasting enable the longwall face mining safely.
 F. Wang et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 64 (2013) 112–121
To avoid large area roof weighting and other relevant accidents,
the deep-hole pre-split blasting technology for controlled roof
caving is presented. This paper uses the cylindrical cavity expan-
sion theory to analyze the mechanics of the blasting induced rock
damage regions, including break zone, fracture zone and elastic
vibration zone, and also calculates the dimension of the three
divisions. The calculations indicate an optimized borehole spacing
of 8.0 m. The software of LS-DYNA3D was used to establish a
deep-hole pre-split blasting model for controlled roof caving, the
simulation analyzes the stress field and the damage scope induced
by the blasting shock wave, and hence uncovers the mechanism
for controlled roof caving, and optimizes the blasting parameters
at the same time. Both mechanical analysis and numerical simula-
tion have provided reasonable basis to the blasting application.
After the application of deep-hole pre-split blasting technology
for controlled roof caving, the first roof weighting length of
the main roof is about 17.4 m. This value is far less than the first
weighting length without blasting measures, and the ground
pressure intensity is relatively small during the first weighting
period, neither hydraulic support iron-bound nor serious step
subsidence along coal wall has happened, thus the longwall face
advances smoothly. The field observations indicate that the deep-
hole pre-split blasting technology has successfully applied for
controlled roof caving, and this enables the longwall face mining
safely and efficiently in the shallow depth seam beneath a room
mining goaf.
Acknowledgments
Financial support for this work was provided by Chinese
National 863 High Technology Plan (NO. 2012AA062101), the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (NO. 51304202),
the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China
(NO. BK20130190), the Fundamental Research Funds for the
Central Universities (NO. 2013QNA28) and the Priority Academic
Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions
(NO. SZBF2011-6-B35). The authors gratefully acknowledge finan-
cial support of the above items. The authors are grateful to Ordos
Wulan Coal Group Corporation Limited for their financial support
and the field tests, and the authors express their special gratitude
to Naj Aziz and Bob Kininmonth for their constructive comments.
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