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Discontinuities such as beddings, faults and joint sets usually have important role in rock slope stability analysis. Indeed, they can change a rock mass to a blocky system. First of all, in the application of different slope stability analysis methods, the blocks must be absolutely determined in geometrical shape and defined in form of polyhedron. A 3D geometrical model of jointed rock mass, including a set of simulated geotechnical blocks, can be generated considering constraints of the model boundaries and geom...

There are some limitations and constraints in application of algorithms developed to optimize open pit limits. Therefore, it is normal to develop new algorithms to decrease existing limitations and increase their capabilities. In this paper, the key group concept which mainly use for stability slope analysis is used to develop a new algorithm named “KG-PLO” to optimize open pit limits. The KG-PLO is implemented on an especial type of the economic block model of the mining area. The algorithm can present the tr...

Since a very long time ago, men have paid a very especial attention to underground spaces. Stone Age men used to take them as shelters and the contemporary human has applied them in several ways. Caverns are large underground spaces which are excavated in hard rock. Nowadays, engineers’ attention has been drawn to the application of caverns in order to expand the urban areas due to the civil developments and the lack of enough spaces on the surface. On the other hand, caverns have turned to become multi-purpose ...

Pillars are key structural columns in underground mining. They are usually made of in situ intact ores and do not have additional reinforcements. Their main function is temporary or permanent support of ore ceiling of rooms during excavation and mining. Coal pillar strength is usually estimated according to empirical formulae obtained from field observations. Todays, numerical models have found increasing use in pillar design. The FLAC3D Software based Mohr-Coulomb Strain Softening (MCSS) failure criterion was use...

Ventilation networks in underground mines may be affected by items such as: locating of objects in air path or destruction of support systems which would result in pressure loss and distortion of air flow. By considering the necessity of keeping the network performances at appropriate level in such conditions, in this study, definition of ventilation network evaluation has been proposed which indicates the network reliability in an uncertain situation. Economic and safety concerns in mines involve this fact that t...

Most of the salt that is being consumed in Iran is produced through stope and pillar mines, located in north of the central desert of Iran. The very large stopes have been excavated for applying open cut loading and hauling machines, so that those stopes have to be supported by large pillars. Therefore, the excavation ratio and stability considerations should be studied as two special cases in these mines. To determine the pillar’s strength, in this paper, four of the largest mines have been studied. An experime...

Few algorithms are available for economic optimization of stope boundaries and underground mining area. The algorithms may be classified as rigorous and heuristic. The rigorous algorithms are those which benefit from the mathematical proof and provide the true optimal solution according to the conditions and environment they are applied. The heuristic algorithms are based on searching for the optimal solution according to some rules. They may not guarantee to find the true optimum but provide the approximate solut...