Large Deformation Control of Deep Roadways in Fractured Hard Rock Based on Cracking-Restraint Method

Large deformations often occur during and after the construction of deep roadways, particularly in fractured hard rock. With persistent deformation, there may be mechanistically unexplained, repeated failure phenomena—they are difficult problems to analyse and address. One strategy is to analyse the failure characteristics of roadways and internal cracking characteristics of the surrounding rock which can be analysed with a digital borehole televiewer and three-dimensional laser scanning equipment. Here, we used this approach combined with research on geostress, joint information, and mechanical properties of rock to reveal the preliminary large deformation mechanism of deep fractured roadways. Based on a cracking-restraint method for engineering design, a control technique is proposed to prevent and control large deformations. The depth and degree of cracking are considered to design parameters and determine the appropriate installation time of the support system. To test this approach, the proposed control technique was applied to a roadway project more than 700 meters deep. The monitoring results demonstrated that this control strategy effectively restrained the cracking of surrounding rocks, improved the quality index of the rock mass, and reduced surface displacement. In addition, due to the improved deformation capacity of the bolt structure, an anti-deformation and energy-absorbing bolt can bear large deformations, preventing premature bolt failures in mining environments.