ARMA/USRMS 06-944

A methodology for selection of resin grouted bolts

R. Varden
Placer Dome, Kalgoorlie, WA, Australia

E. Villaescusa
CRC Mining, Curtin University of Technology, WA School of Mines, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
Copyright 2005, ARMA, American Rock Mechanics Association This paper was prepared for presentation at Golden Rocks 2006, The 41st U.S. Symposium on Rock Mechanics (USRMS): "50 Years of Rock Mechanics - Landmarks and Future Challenges.", held in Golden, Colorado, June 17-21, 2006. This paper was selected for presentation by a USRMS Program Committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted earlier by the author(s). Contents of the paper, as presented, have not been reviewed by ARMA/USRMS and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any position of USRMS, ARMA, their officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper for commercial purposes without the written consent of ARMA is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgement of where and by whom the paper was presented.

ABSTRACT: A new methodology has been developed to quantify the performance of fully encapsulated resin bolts. Investigations were undertaken at the Bullant mine near Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. A number of different resin anchored rock bolts were installed. The resin encapsulated bolts were subsequently overcored and analysed. Analysis consisted of push tests to obtain load-displacement characteristics. Additional observations were used to assess the mixing ability of different bolt designs and the effects that the bolts design and borehole size had on the load-transfer . The investigations identified a number of problems that occurred during installation. These problems cause variations in load transfer along the length of the bolt. It was found that the majority of the problems were at the anchor region of the bolts.

1. INTRODUCTION Over the last decade or so, jumbo-installed, 45mm diameter galvanized friction rock stabilisers have become the preferred form of reinforcement in underground hard rock mining in Australia ([1], [2]). This has been mainly driven by a desire to achieve high development rates and low costs using jumbos in order to allow the extraction of low-grade orebodies. In more recent years, as the mining operations are getting deeper and the rock masses are becoming highly stressed, other reinforcement schemes such as fully encapsulated resin rebar are being introduced as an alternative to friction bolts for long term reinforcement ([3], [4], [5]). The bolts typically being used in the underground hard rock mines are different from the bolts used in the coal mining industry. Modifications have been necessary due to the need to drill larger borehole diameters with the type of equipment used in the hard rock metalliferous mines. The modifications are mainly in the form of paddles or the use of a spiral wire welded on to the end section of the bolts. The introduction of mechanised resin bolting using jumbos has been expensive and difficult. The cost of resins includes proper transportation to remote

mine sites and the requirement for refrigerated surface and underground storage. The difficulties are associated with the speed of installation, the requirement to install mesh in a single pass, poor matching of bolt diameters to borehole diameters drilled by a jumbo as well as operator skills. 2. RESIN BOLTS Test work on the four bolt types shown in Figure 1 was carried out at the Placer Dome, Bullant mine site near Kalgoorlie, 600 km east of Perth, Western Australia. Bolts were installed in to basalt with a Q rock mass classification of Good. A total of 25 bolts with lengths of 1.5 to 1.8 m were installed. Of these, 20 bolts were successfully overcored. The specifications for the four bolts are as follows: The 20 mm Posimix has a core diameter of 20 mm and major bar diameter of 22.1 mm. The spiral wire diameter is 4.5 mm with a 38 mm pitch and a length of 500 mm. The 24 mm Posimix bolt has a core diameter of 21.7 mm and major bar diameter of 23.2 mm. The spiral wire diameter is 3.0 mm with a 55 mm pitch and a length of 500 mm.

 The 24 mm Secura bolt has a bolt core diameter of 21.45 mm with a paddle diameter of 30.7 mm. The 27 mm Secura bolt has 23 mm core diameter with a paddle diameter of 29.2 mm. The Posimix system iss designed to push the plastic to the top of the hole additionally the system allows the bolt to be centrally located in the hole allowing even distribution and mixing of the resin. The concept of the paddles that are sheared into the bolt is to shred the plastic resin cartridge and aid the mixing of the resin.

Figure 2. WASM bolt overcoring rig in operation.

The purpose-built drill rig shown in Figure 2 resulted from research at the WA School of Mines (WASM). This versatile overcoring system is capable of drilling at any orientation (360) and overcoring reinforcement lengths up to 3m. Overcoring of in-situ bolts can be undertaken in the walls and backs to a collar height of 5-7m. Overcoring is carried out by a 200 mm triple tube bit shown in Figure 3. Core with a diameter of 150 mm can be recovered with minimal disturbance. This allows not only the recovery of the element, but also provides a clear view of the surrounding rock mass and a better understanding of the rock bolt system/rock mass interaction. Bolt overcoring provides a range of information including location and frequency of geological discontinuities, overall rock mass conditions, bolt encapsulation, load transfer along the bolt axis and corrosion effects (if any).

Figure 1. Bolt profiles of bolts tested. Top down: 20 mm Posimix Bolt, 24 mm Posimix Bolt, 24 mm Secura Bolt, 27 mm Secura Bolt.

3. BOLT OVERCORING An urgent and overwhelming need to examine the entire length of fully encapsulated rock bolts in situ was identified. Conventional pull testing programs for quality control can only be meaningfully applied to point anchored or friction bolts. In addition, nondestructive ultrasonic testing methods are either still in development or have not been widely used in Australia and demonstrated to be reliable.
Figure 3. Triple tube bit used for overcoring.

Overcoring provides information on the rock, the quality of installation and the expected bolt performance.. The information includes (with some specific examples given in Figure 4):
a

Encapsulation of the bolt; Distribution of resin, Figure 4a lack of resin at collar; Resin migration, Figure 4b lack of resin migration in shear zone; Gloving Figure 4c plastic rapped around bolt; Over drilling, Figure 4d unmixed resin at toe of the hole indicating over drilling; Resin annulus centralisation within the hole; Distribution of the plastic; Bolt interaction with shear zones and other discontinuities; Load transfer per unit length and Corrosion.
c

A 300 mm long section of rock core with 100 mm of cleaned protruding bolt were prepared. The protruding length of bolt was used for the seating arrangement required to allow push testing. Prior to testing, the resin annulus was measured to give an indication of centralisation within the hole. Push tests were used as this allowed at least three samples per bolt to be prepared. Push tests do not give a true peak load reading as opposed to pull tests, but in this case comparison between as many samples was the objective to identify if characteristics varied along the bolt length. In general, a load-displacement curve provides an indication of stiffness, peak and residual forces as well as the displacement capacity. The results can be used as a relative measure of load transfer (installation quality and bolt effectiveness) along the bolt axis. An Avery 50 tonne test machine was used for testing of the samples (Figure 6). The sample is confined within a steel jacket during the push test. The jacket consists of two halves that are bolted together. The bolts were tensioned with a torque wrench to 60 kN. The jacket was lined with a piece of thin rubber and the sample placed in a PVC sleeve. This allowed the sample to be firmly clamped. A cap was placed on top of the protruding bolt. The inside of the cap was domed to allow the bolt to align with the platen when the machine applied load. Data was collected electronically with a load-displacement plot displayed on the computer screen during a test.

Figure 4. Shows some of the problems overcoring found at Bullant.

4. LABORATORY TESTING Following overcoring, the samples were transported to the WASM laboratory where photographs were taken and notes were made on each samples condition before being sectioned. The rock core and bolt were cut into three sections designated as a-collar, b-mid section and c- anchor. Figure 5 shows the sample before cutting and preparation for testing.

a a

b b

c c
Figure 6. Avery machine showing sample testing arrangement.

Figure 5. Sample before and after sample preparation.

After testing the elements were then photographed and inspected. The results show that in most cases where the load transfer was effective, failures occurred at the resin/rock interface. The frictional resistance was mobilised by shearing of the resin irregularities at this interface. However, when the resin encapsulation was poor, failure at the bolt/resin interface was experienced, as was the case of the sample B2b shown in Figure 7. This implies poor installation practices leading to unsatisfactory mixing of the resin.

20 mm Posimix Bolt 24 mm Posimix Bolt 24 mm Secura Bolt 27 mm Secura Bolt 300

Relative Peak Load (KN)

250 200 150 100 50 0 150 170 190 210 230 250 270 290 310 330

Embedment Length (mm)

Figure 8. Relative Peak Load verses Embedment Length analysis for bolt type installed in 35 mm diameter holes.

a) failure at the resin-rock interface

Figure 10 shows the peak loads recorded for each bolt type at the three different locations along the length of the bolt (i.e. collar section, mid section and anchor section. It can be seen that the peak load for the anchor section is lower than that obtained for other sections of the same bolt type.

b) failure at the bolt gloving interface

300 Peak Load (KN) 250 200 150 100 50

Posimix 20 mm Posimix 24 mm Secura 24 mm Secura 27 mm Collar Section

0 180

200

220

240

260

280

300

320

Peak Load (KN)

Figure 7. Example of a) effective load transfer and b) excessive gloving by the resin cartridge.

Embedment Length (mm) Embedment (mm)

300 250 200 150 100 50 0 180 200 220 240 260 280 300 320

Mid Section

5. DATA ANALYSIS Figure 8 shows the relative peak load plotted against embedment length for the four different bolts. There is a trend showing that as embedment length increases the load transfer rate improves.

Peak Load (KN)

Gloving is a term used to describe the encasing or partial encasing of the bolt by the plastic wrapping used to form the resin cartridge. Gloving has been recognised for many years, initially within the coal mining industry, and has been reported by a number of authors including [6]. The explanation for the occurrence of gloving has been put down to design characteristics of the bolt and resin cartridge, installation procedure, borehole size, drilling equipment and, handling and storage methods.

Embedment Length (mm) 300 Anchor Section 250 200 150 100 50 0 180 200 220

240

260

280

300

320

Embedment Length (mm)

Figure 10. Relative Peak Load verses Embedment Length analysis for collar, mid section and anchor for all bolt types.

Results with similar embedment lengths were analysed together; Figure 10 shows the loaddisplacement responses for embedment lengths of 300 mm. This has allowed direct comparisons between different bolt types and designs to be analysed.

The rating was also used to compare sections of the bolt; that is, the collar, mid-section and anchoring regions. The results show that for all reinforcement schemes, the majority of the poorly mixed samples were located at the anchoring region (See Figure 12).
a) 20 mm Posimix Bolt Hole Diameter 35 mm
Poor 2 1.5 Rating 1 0.5 Inconclusive Good

Load (kN)

0 Collar (a) Mid (b) Anchor (c).

b) 24 mm Posimix Bolt Hole Diameter 35 mm

Poor 3 2.5 Inconclusive Good

Displacement (mm)
Rating

2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Collar (a) Mid (b) Anchor (c).

Figure 10. Load displacement plot for 300 mm embedment length.

6. RESIN MIXING QUALITY In order to compare the mix quality between bolts, a rating system was developed and applied. The rating system consisted of; good used to indicate samples that had no plastic and no voids and the resin appeared well mixed, poor used to indicate samples that had plastic and voids and the resin appeared poorly mixed. Similarly, a third rating, inconclusive, was introduced for samples where either plastic or voids could be identified and the mix does not fit as good or poorly mixed (See Figure 11).
Mixing Quality Poor Inconclusive Good

c) 24 mm Secura Bolt Hole Diameter 35 mm

Poor 3 2.5 Rating 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Collar (a) Mid (b) Anchor (c). Inconclusive Good

100 90

d) 27 mm Secura Bolt Hole Diameter35 mm

Poor 2 1.5 Rating 1 0.5 0 Collar (a) Mid (b) Anchor (c). ). Inconclusive Good

No. of Samples ( %)

80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 32mm Rebar 35mm hole 32mm Rebar 42mm hole 20mm Posimix 35mm hole 24mm Posimix 35mm hole 24mm Secura 35mm hole 27mm Secura 35mm hole 27mm Secura 33mm hole

Figure 11. A comparison of resin mix quality for bolts tested

Figure 12. Resin encapsulation quality along bolt length.

This is perhaps due to different mixing times along the bolt axis and also due to accumulation of the resin cartridge plastic wrapping as it is pushed towards the end of the hole. Resin mixing time for the end of the hole is less than the rest of the bolt, thus increasing the risk of a poor mix. Comparing overcoring results for 27mm Secura bolts, using 33mm and 35mm holes shows similar strengths between the two holes sizes, but the results do indicate that the mid sections have increased strength where mixing is more effective. This suggests that mixing at the anchor where the most effective strength is required is not as efficient due to shorter mixing times. This is demonstrated in Figure 13.
Secura M27 35mm hole 250 collar region middle region anchor region Secura M27 33mm hole

d.

e.

f.

200

150

100

50

g.
Embedment length (300mm)

Figure 13. Load transfer variability along bolt axis for Secura bolts.

good mixing results than the other bolts. This indicates that the 20 mm Posimix Bolting system is the most robust system and performs well in a 35 mm hole. The 27 mm Secura bolt results for the 33 mm diameter hole tests were good. The bolt installed into the 35 mm hole showed better residual load characteristics that would aid performance. Overall there is a greater confidence in the results from the bolts installed in the 33 mm hole due to more data recovered. This indicates that a 33 mm diameter hole would be the recommended size for the 27 mm Secura bolt. Failure of the system is by shearing between the resin rock interface. 51 tests were carried out with only one bolt failing on the bolt/resin interface. Load transfer was not solely dependent on mix quality along the bolt length, but rather on the ability of the mixing to create a large contact surface between the resin and rock interface. Samples with good contact resulted in higher peak loads even if the mix quality was poor. Samples with good mix quality and good contact resulted in improved peak loads. It was proposed that mix quality should be highest at the end of the hole. However in practice this was not seen consistently throughout the holes. Quality of mixing along the length of the hole was irregular.

Relative residual load (kN)

7. SELECTION CRITERION On the basis of the overcoring and associated investigations, the following selection criteria for resin bolts have been developed: a. The distribution of plastic throughout the resin mix is important. The larger the piece of plastic that is in contact with the bolt or rock the greater the disruption to load transfer. It was found that both the Posimix and Secura bolt chopped up the plastic, however the Posimix was the more effective system resulting in smaller and better distributed plastic pieces. b. The bolt profile was found to be significant in the mixing of the resin. Both the 24 mm Posimix and 24 mm Secura bolt resulted in poorer mixing results than the 20 mm Posimix Bolt and the 27 mm Secura Bolt. c. The 20 mm Posimix bolt was found to give the best correlation between results with more

8. CONCLUSIONS The objective of the project was to develop a methodology to select a bolting system for a particular rock mass was achieved. Overcoring is a valid method to assess the installation quality in a bolting system, it is the only method where the entire length of the bolt can be inspected and test work can be carried out at different points along the bolt length. This method would equally apply for other investigations, and is currently being used by WASM in corrosion assessment [7]. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of Placer Dome Kalgoorlie, facilities and technical support of WASM and support of Strata Control Systems and AVKO Drilling. The revision and suggested changes to this paper by Dr. Alan Thompson of WASM is also greatly appreciated.

REFERENCES
1. Villaescusa, E. and J. Wright 1997. Permanent excavation reinforcement using cement grouted split-set bolts. The AusIMM Proceedings, No1, 65-69. 2. Thompson A.G. and D.J. Finn 1999. The performance of grouted split tube rock bolt systems. Procc. Rock Support and Reinforcement Practice in Mining, E. Villaescusa, A.G. Thompson & CR. Windsor (Eds), Rotterdam, Balkema, 91-102. 3. Mikula P. 2004. Changing to the Posimix4 for Jumbo and Quick-ChemTM at Mount Charlotte Mine. In: 5th Int. Symp. on Ground Support, Perth, Villaescusa E, Potvin Y, Editors, Taylor & Francis, 211-220. 4. Simpson S.J. 2005. Evaluation and implementation of resin bolts at Olympic Dam Mine, Bachelor of Engineering Thesis, WA School of Mines. 5. Varden, R., 2005. A methodology for selection of resin grouted bolts. Master of Engineering Science in Mining Geomechanics Thesis, Kalgoorlie:WA School of Mines, 113p. 6. Mould R J, R. N. Campbell and S.A. MacGregor 2004. Extent and mechanisms of gloving and unmixed resin in fully encapsulated roof bolts and a review of recent developments. Procc. 5th Int. Symp. on Ground Support, Perth, Villaescusa E, Potvin Y, Editors, Taylor & Francis; 231-42 7. Villaescusa, E., R. Varden and R., Hassell, 2005. Quantifying the performance of resin grouted rock bolts in the Australian underground hard rock mining industry. Unpublished, submitted to The International Society of Rock Mechanics.