Determination of Suitable Barrier Pillar Width in Tabas Mechanized Coal Mine Using Numerical Modeling

Longwall mining is one of the methods for coal extraction with high production efficiency, which requires a lot of initial investment to equip and prepare it. In the longwall mining process, with the advance of the coal face, the roof is damaged at the back of the coal face. To protect the main tunnels and access tunnels (Gaterodas) of the mine, the stresses created from the panel extraction are utilized in two ways. The first solution, which has the most important effect on the stability of the panel, is the placement of the chain pillar and the barrier pillar, and another way of installing the support in the main tunnels to control the tunnel convergence. Therefore, it is important to determine the width of the barrier pillar, which has the highest effect on mineral productivity and the least effect on the distribution of stress around the main tunnels. The main objective of this research is to obtain the appropriate width of the barrier pillar at the end of the E3 panel in the Tabas mechanized coal mine, so that the main tunnels of the mine have the lowest convergence. The FLAC3D software was used for numerical modeling. The results of various numerical models of the advancing coal face shows that width of the barrier pillar has an effect on the distribution of stress. Finally the result shows that the suitable width of the barrier pillar is 80 meters. Also, the result of economical investigation shows that 80 m pillar width causes more than 6000 tons of coal to be extracted.