Effect of bolting on roadway support in extremely weak rock

In mine roadway support operations, floor bolting not only played a role in floor heave control, but also in reinforcing roof and its two sides. Correspondingly, bolting of roof and two sides also played a part in floor heave control. To quantify the effect of such bolting, based on roadway support in extremely weak rock, three physical models were produced and tested in laboratory. Through comparison of their displacements in three physical simulation experiments, the reinforcing effect of bolting in extremely weak rock roadways was quantified. Reinforcing coefficients was defined as displacement ratio between original support and new support regime. Results indicated that the reinforcing coefficients, for bolting of roof and its two sides, on floor, two sides, and roof reached 2.18, 3.56, and 1.81 respectively. The reinforcing coefficients for floor bolting on floor, two sides, and roof reached 3.06, 2.34, and 1.39 respectively. So in this extremely weak rock, the surrounding rock should be considered as an integral structure in any support operation: this allows for better local strength improvement, and provided future design guidance.