Underground mining is a very high risk industry. There are many potential hazards in the underground mining these include fire, explosion,... Show moreUnderground mining is a very high risk industry. There are many potential hazards in the underground mining these include fire, explosion, inundation, roof collapse, toxic gases, chemical pollution, etc. Over past centuries, in US alone, more than 100,000 miners lost their life in different accidents. The primary safety methods used in underground mines concentrate on the monitoring of the hazardous gases, fire detection and ventilation. Using advanced instruments and monitoring techniques have significantly reduced the accidents in the modern mines. However despite the advancement of these monitoring facilities, accidents still occur in underground mining annually around the world, and many miners were killed because they were trapped and unable to escape due to blocked of exit access. This thesis describes a new development of an emergency evacuation system in underground mines and analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of the system. It is expected that the new system will greatly improve the emergency exit methods and save more lives in the future. The new emergency evacuation system consists of vertical concrete mineshaft, high capacity mineshaft elevators, surface terminal and underground support structures. In addition, the study of numerical simulation was carried out to observe the ground response during excavation. A typical ground profiles for underground mining in south part of China was used in this analysis. The results selected from shaft excavation simulation indicate that fluid drilling method effectively prevents the soil around mineshaft from collapse hazard. Compared to soil strength, soil stiffness has a significant influence on the soil response induced by excavating shafts. Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, July 2011 Show less
