Improving seismic risk characterisation and management in underground mines

采矿业正在开采更深的矿体，并采用高提取率，以获得利润和竞争力。在这种情况下，采矿引起的地震活动正变得越来越具有挑战性，因为它对矿山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。提出的研究计划旨在提高地下矿山地震风险表征和管理的知识和实践水平。地震危险性受地震危险性等级、矿山开挖的易损性和矿工暴露程度的影响。在实践中，地震灾害被定义为在地震事件人群中可能发生的最大地震事件。这项研究将侧重于更好地了解较大的矿山规模和较小的工作场所规模在地震危险方面的趋势和模式。该提案涉及开发一种地震数据聚类方法，该方法将允许精确的地震危险表征和改进随时间和空间的跟踪。目的是将地震活动群中确定的地震危险水平与采矿引起的应力水平、岩体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反应的时间模式，目的是提高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理解。矿井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期的增加。实际上，地雷人员在这些期间的接触是通过具体地点的排除和再入程序来管理的。这些措施包括建立不允许进入的边界和持续时间，以涵盖预期的高地震危险时期。拟议的研究进一步涉及制定一种方法，以评估排除和再入程序的可靠性，并描述爆破期后地震危险的程度。这具有重要的影响，特别是在地雷开发过程中，因为这导致地雷人员直接暴露在无支撑的地面上。将开发的工具将具有实际意义，例如将专门采矿设备优化分配到已确定的地震危险性高的地区。拟议的研究将与采矿业合作进行，其结果的应用将旨在直接改善地下矿山的地震风险管理和安全。研究结果将挑战目前的做法，即往往需要对过去的失败进行反应性法医审查，以便调整采矿计划。对岩石力学领域高素质人才的培训将满足该行业当前的需求，该行业正在努力吸引和留住这些专家。

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.