Institute of Mining, Soligorsk, Belarus:

B. I. Petrovskiy, Chief Researcher, Doctor of Engineering Sciences
A. A. Garnishevskiy, Researcher, gss1702@gmail.com
O. M. Chechukha, Head of Automation Department

In the course of slice mining of potash seam III at the Starobin deposit, in lower longwalls, after extraction of upper sylvinite layers, violent dynamic phenomena of rock pressure are observed during roof falls. Rock pressure monitoring systems (RPMS) with the function of hazardous roof fall prediction, used at different times of the mentioned seam mining, are described together with their shortcomings. Hazardous roof fall prediction software (HRFPS) is developed; its feature is a new program module integrating interface and processing of data from all RPMSs operated at the deposit. The structure of Poland-manufacture pressure monitoring system PressCater equipped with the hazardous roof fall prediction hardware/software is presented. The developed HRFPS algorithm includes prediction of hazardous roof falls based on all data and on data on hazardous rock pressure. Furthermore, the prediction system uses the method of visual observation of longwall support behavior under loading in each stoping cycle. Trials of HRFPS in a few longwalls equipped with PressCater show efficiency and reliability of prediction.

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