3D topographic stress perturbations and implications for ground control in underground coal mines

• We calculate 3D topography-perturbed stresses around an active coal mine using BEM.
• Model topography is derived from freely-available airborne LiDAR data.
• Increased greatest compressive stress occurs in areas of observed roof failure.
• Significant inclination of principal stresses explains failure distribution in mine.
• Method is efficient-enough to be included in mine planning.

It is well known that the perturbed stress field beneath valleys can result in roof instabilities in shallow underground coal and stone mines. Quantitatively predicting the magnitude of these stress perturbations, particularly beneath complicated three-dimensional (3D) topography, has not become commonplace in mine planning, perhaps due to the complexity and time-consuming nature of the problem. Here we utilize 3D digital elevation models and the 3D boundary element method (BEM) approach to efficiently calculate the pre-mining topographically perturbed stress field in the vicinity of the Carroll Hollow coal mine in eastern Ohio. We find that regions of elevated compressive stress in the mine correspond to areas in which cutter roof failure is a common source of roof instability. Furthermore, both the magnitude and inclination of the principal stresses calculated from the 3D topographic BEM model are found to be consistent with observed failure distributions within the mine. We propose that the approach outlined in this study can be efficiently applied to the mine planning process in order to mitigate or avoid potentially hazardous mining conditions.