Design of Unsupported Rock Pillars in a Room-and-Pillar Underground Structure by the Tributary Area Method and the Pillar Strength Estimation

Room-and-pillar mining method is one of the most popular underground mining method in the world. If the room-and-pillar mining method is able to be adopted in civil works, it would be highly probable to reduce underground construction costs and to expand a underground structure in use. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the design procedure of unsupported rock pillars which are indispensable to ensure the stability of a room-and-pillar underground structure. Parametric studies on their key design parameters are also carried out for 125 different kinds of design conditions. From the study, the width of a rock pillar is found to show a linear relationship with its corresponding safety factor. The safety factor of a unsupported rock pillar decreased drastically like a negative exponential function as the ratio of room width to pillar width increases in the same rock strength condition. Based on the parametric studies, a design chart to simply evaluate the geometric design parameters of a unsupported rock pillar satisfying a design safety factor is also proposed in this study.