Effect of a single weak lithological structure on the height of a collapsing roof in a deep soft rock roadway

Besides the cross sections of roadways and the tendency and obliquity of roadway axes, the major controlling factors affecting the height of a collapsing roof include the weak lithological structure of surrounding rocks. This thesis analyzes the effect of two single and weak lithological structures of both sides and the roof on the height of a collapsing roof in a deep soft rock roadway. Using the two-dimensional UDEC3.1 software, a numerical simulation was carried out on the models of weak lithological structures of both sides of a roadway and of two weak lithological structures of roof of different depths. We reconstruct the overall processes from a break-away layer, bending, subsidence and the cracking of a collapsing roof. We also illustrate the distribution characteristics of displacement fields in the surrounding rock after the roof collapse in a deep soft rock roadway. The results of our numerical simulations indicate that the form of a roof collapse is side-expanding when the roadway is a weak structure at both sides. The height of the roof collapse is related to the lithological combination of the roof when the roadway is a weak structure of the roof.