ASSESSMENT OF PILLAR DIMENSIONS OF CANKIRI-TURKEY ROCK SALT MINE BY NUMERICAL ANALYSIS

11th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM2011, www.sgem.org, SGEM2011 Conference Proceedings/ ISSN 1314-2704, June 20-25, 2011, Vol. 1, 719-726 pp

ABSTRACT

Cankiri rock salt formation is one of the most important rock salt sources of Turkey.
Rock salt production in this area is performed by underground room and pillar mining
method approximately 150 m under existing topography. However, pillar dimensions
which are used in Cankiri rock salt mine are determined by trial and error method. Aim
of this study is to create a model which will overlap long and short term rock mechanics
analysis results with in-situ stresses and in-situ deformations. By the evaluation of these
results pillar dimensions were determined by numerical methods. Numerical analyses
were carried out with PHASE2 software which uses a hybrid numerical modeling
method. Firstly the pillar dimensions applied at the present time were investigated then
different pillar dimensions were tested in order to investigate the boundary conditions of
safe pillar dimensions.

Keywords: Rock mechanics, rock salt, room and pillar mining, numerical analysis, Cankiri-Turkey