7.

Critical bond lengths

Advertising of support units often make general statements
such as
“This 100 kN bolt meets the demands for increased safety in the mining
and civil industries”
?

What bond length is required to

meet the 100 kN specification?
10 tons

These new 10 ton

bolts are going to
make this mine
very safe!
7.1 Critical bond lengths
1. Frequently used term in South Africa
2. Called “anchor length” by many workers
3. Called “bond length” by Phase2 modelling program

Van der Merwe and Madden (2002)

Hoek et al (2005)
Critical bond lengths
1. Critical bond length of a end-anchored rockbolt  100 - 150 mm

Bond length

2. Critical bond length of friction anchors and grouted bolts to be determined

through pull-out tests on short anchors
7.2 Friction anchors
Experiments in South Africa on different friction anchors installed at
different lengths
7

6 Supplier A

Supplier B
5
Pullout force (tons)

Supplier C

0
0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
Length of friction anchor (m)
7.3 Friction anchors filled with grout!
• Interesting experiment showing effect of grout filled friction anchors
• Pullout forces increase dramatically with grout – decrease in critical
bond length
25
44 mm diameter hole
46 mm diameter friction anchor
Grouted
20
Pullout load (tons)

15

10

Ungrouted

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Length of friction anchor (mm)
7.4 Inflatable roof tendons
• Two types
– Non-return valve
– Water release
• Critical bond length much smaller for bolts with a non-return valve
– Same principal as with the grouted friction anchors apply

• Typical values of critical bond lengths

– 8 ton inflatable bolt with non-return valve: 250 mm
– 8 ton inflatable bolt with water release: 800 mm
Inflatable roof tendons
• Typical values of pullout load/bond length from underground tests

8
Average pullout load (tons)

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Bond length (mm)
Exercise 7.1: Choosing the right bolt
As a mining engineer, you are required to do further designs of roofbolt support for the same
mining company. The bolt manufacturers have colluded to maximise their profits and all of
them are now only selling one bolt length namely 2 m. The mine still attempts to save
money and it requires that the bolt spacing is as large as possible. The rock in the
hangingwall is the same quartzite with a density of 2700 kg/m3 with the prominent bedding
plane with low cohesion at a height of 1.5 m. You decide to investigate the following options:

1. End-anchored bolts with a capacity of 8 tons

2. Friction anchors with a pull-out resistance of 50 kN/m
3. Inflatable tendons (water release) with a pullout resistance of 8 tons for a bond length
of 800 mm and a pullout of 1.5 tons for a bond length of 300 mm (assume a linear
pullout/bond length relationship)
4. 10 ton inflatable tendons with a non-return valve and a critical bond length of 250 mm

a) What is the maximum spacing for each of these bolt types on a square grid if you want
to maintain a factor of safety of 1.5?
b) How many of each of the bolt types will you use to support 1000 m2 of hangingwall?