Contribution to the study of the behaviour of support pillars in mines

Abstract

This paper presents a study, on laboratory scale, of the deformation and strength characteristics of mine support pillars.

The experimental approach used small-scale models of the pillars, shaped in such a way that the uniaxial compression tests, with a very stiff servo-controlled testing machine, were not affected by the contacts between the testing machine and the specimens. An elastic numerical analysis was carried out, in order to investigate the influence of some parameters on the pillar stability.