Improving seismic risk characterisation and management in underground mines

采矿业正在开采更深的矿体，并采用高采矿率，以求盈利和具有竞争力。在这方面，采矿引起的地震活动正变得越来越具有挑战性，因为它对采矿人员的安全以及深部采矿作业的生产力和经济可行性构成重大威胁。 拟议的研究计划旨在提高对地下矿山地震危险性特征和管理的认识和实践水平。地震危险性受地震危险性、矿井开挖易损性、矿工暴露程度等因素的影响。在实践中，地震危险性被定义为在地震事件群体内可能发生的最大地震事件。这项研究将侧重于更好地理解地震灾害中较大的矿山规模和较小的工作场所规模的趋势和模式。该提案涉及开发一种地震数据分组方法，以便对地震危险进行精确的描述，并改进时间和空间的跟踪。其目的是将地震活动集群中确定的地震危险水平与采矿引起的应力水平、岩石性质和构造地质的变化联系起来。此外，将研究集群之间强烈地震响应的时间模式，目的是增进我们对采矿中产生大震级地震事件所涉及的更大规模机制的了解。 地雷爆炸是矿井地震活动的重要触发因素，通常会导致地震危险性增加。实际上，在这些期间，地雷人员的暴露是通过特定地点的排除和重新进入程序进行管理的。这些措施包括确定不进入边界和持续时间，以涵盖预期的高地震危险时期。拟议的研究还涉及制定一种方法，用于评估排除程序和再入程序的可靠性，并确定爆破期间之后的地震危险程度。这具有重要影响，特别是在地雷开发进程中，这导致地雷人员直接暴露在无人支持的土地上。将开发的工具将具有实际意义，例如将专门的采矿设备优化配置到已确定的地震危险性较高的地区。 拟议的研究将与采矿业合作进行，由此产生的应用将旨在直接改善地下矿山的地震风险管理和安全。这些结果将挑战目前的做法状态，这种做法往往需要对过去的失败进行被动的法医审查，以适应采矿计划。对岩石力学领域高素质人员的培训将满足该行业目前的需要，该行业正在为吸引和留住这些专家作出重大努力。

The mining industry is exploiting deeper orebodies and employing high extraction ratios in order be profitable and competitive. In this context, mining-induced seismicity is becoming increasingly challenging as it poses a significant threat to the safety of mine personnel and to the productivity and economic viability of deep mining operations. The proposed research program aims at advancing the state of knowledge and practice on seismic risk characterisation and management in underground mines. The seismic risk is influenced by the level of seismic hazard, the vulnerability of mine excavations, and the exposure of mine workers. In practice, seismic hazard is defined as the largest seismic event susceptible of occurring within a seismic event population. This research will focus on developing a better understanding of both the larger mine-scale and smaller workplace-scale trends and patterns in seismic hazard. The proposal involves developing a seismic data clustering methodology that would allow for a refined seismic hazard characterization and improved tracking over time and space. The objective is to correlate the level of seismic hazard identified in seismicity clusters with changes in mining-induced stress levels, rock mass properties, and structural geology. Furthermore, temporal patterns in strong seismic responses amongst clusters will be investigated with the objective of improving our understanding of the larger-scale mechanisms involved in generating large magnitude seismic events in mining. Mine blasts are important triggers of mine seismicity, and typically result in periods of increased seismic hazard. In practice, the exposure of mine personnel during these periods is managed through site-specific exclusion and re-entry procedures. These consist in establishing non-entry perimeters and durations to cover periods of anticipated high seismic hazard. The proposed research further involves developing a methodology for assessing the reliability of exclusion and re-entry procedures and characterizing the level of seismic hazard following blasting periods. This has important implications, particularly in the mine development process, which leads to direct exposure of mine personnel to unsupported grounds. The tools that will be developed will have practical implications, such as optimizing the allocation of specialized mining equipment into identified areas of elevated seismic hazard. The proposed research will be conducted in partnership with the mining industry and its resulting applications will aim at directly improving seismic risk management and safety in underground mines. The outcomes will challenge the current state of practice that often requires reactive forensic reviews of past failures in order to adapt mining plans. The training of highly qualified personnel in the field of rock mechanics will address the current needs of the industry, which is deploying important efforts in attracting and retaining these specialists.