International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 24 (2014) 7580

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International Journal of Mining Science and Technology

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Applying real time seismic monitoring technology for slope stability assessmentAn Indian opencast coal mine perspective
Vinoth S. , Ajay Kumar L.
Department of Mining Engineering, College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University, Chennai 600025, India

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
This paper outlines the results obtained from real time microseismic monitoring of an opencast coal mine in South India. The objective of the study is to investigate the stress changes within the rockmass along the slope due to underground mine development operation and their impact on the stability of the highwall slope. The installed microseismic systems recorded the seismic triggerings down to 2 moment magnitude. In general, most of the events recorded during the monitoring period are weak in seismic energy. The study adopts a simple and more reliable tool to characterize the seismically active zone for assessing the stability of the highwall in real time. The impact of underground working on the slope is studied on the basis of the seismic event impact contours and seismic clusters. During the monitoring period, it is observed that the intensity of the overall microseismic activity along the slope due to the mine development operations did not cause any adverse impact on the highwall stability. 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of China University of Mining & Technology.

Article history: Received 1 May 2013 Received in revised form 15 June 2013 Accepted 20 July 2013 Available online 2 January 2014 Keywords: Seismic monitoring Induced seismicity Seismic clusters Slope stability Opencast mining

1. Introduction Mining coal and subsequent removal of overlying rock mass will lead to increase in stress along the highwall, resulting in deformation or even complete collapse of the slope. Appreciable research on the aspects of slope stability in open pit mining has been carried out during 1960s and 1970s [1]. Later, very little development is achieved in the evaluation of slope stability techniques during the next 30 years [2]. Till then, slope stability remains a concern even in the most conservative slopes, due to the unknown properties and conditions of rock mass [3]. The application of mine induced seismicity for understanding the stress changes within the rockmass has been investigated in many countries with mining tradition [4]. In general, rock fracturing and seismic activity are unavoidable consequences of mining activities. This can be directly related to interaction of mine excavations and geological structures [5]. Many valid attempts have been made to monitor such microseismicity for delineating and predicting rock falls, rock burst, and outburst [611]. While monitoring of microseismic radiations is common in underground mining operations, the method is implemented in opencast mines since 2002 in Australia, Canada and South Africa [12]. This is necessitated due to the increase in large number of deep opencast mines, often beyond the working experience and knowledge base of the industry. With the development of sophisticated seismic instrumentation in the recent years, the application of microseismic
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9994212416.
E-mail address: vino.ceg@gmail.com (S. Vinoth).

monitoring techniques in surface mines has provided a useful tool in understanding the rock mass response to mining operations [1315]. Routine seismic monitoring in mines enables the quantication of seismicity induced in the rock mass in three dimensional volume surrounding the slope in real time. This will provide a logical and effective tool to prevent any impending failure caused by evaluation of fractures in rockmass, activation of known or unknown geological structures, stress changes and vibration threshold for the safe and productive mining operations [3,16,17]. They will also yield useful information, in understanding the relation between the slope stability, mine seismicity and mining operations [18]. Hence, it is important to monitor the level of extraction versus the seismicity induced along the slope due to such operations. In Indian opencast mines, generally geotechnical methods are preferred for design of slope and investigating stability issues [19]. The earlier applications of seismic monitoring method in India are restricted mainly to various underground mines [2023]. Chouhan has reported induced seismicity from the Raniganj coal seam in the form of bumps from the Chinakuri colliery [20]. Later the seismic method has been adopted for rock burst prediction and for understanding the geomechanical characters of the Kolar Gold Mines in India [2123]. Summarising the earlier effects and to overcome the new geotechnical problems associated with slope stability, it is proposed to apply the microseismic monitoring technique for an opencast coal mines in India for predicting slope failures. Since most of the research in seismic monitoring is restricted to underground mining applications in India, this paper summarises in brief the preliminary results of real time microseismic

2095-2686/$ - see front matter 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of China University of Mining & Technology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmst.2013.12.013

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monitoring carried out on the slope of a highwall in an opencast mine in Godavari coal basin of India. The details of the seismic system conguration, array design, network settings, data processing and the results obtained from the ve triaxial geophones are discussed. The study is initiated to monitor the impact of construction of underground mine openings on the slope stability of the highwall in terms of induced seismicity in real time. The existence of seismic event clusters suggests that the rock mass exhibits distinct planes of weakness [24]. The study aimed to estimate the impact of the advancing underground openings on such weak planes along the slope for monitoring the stability of the rockmass. The work also underlines the adoptability of seismic technology as a monitoring tool, for efcient mitigation of seismic hazard in an open pit mine. 2. Geological setting The study area is a part of ManuguruCherla belt under the coal bearing PranhitaGodavari Basin, a principle Gondwana Basin coal deposit of South India (Fig. 1). The PranhitaGodavari valley is a major NNW-SSE trending belt resting on the Precambrian Sullavai Group rocks and extending over 470 km in strike length. The basin preserves entire Gondwana periods records of peninsular India covering the entire sedimentation from Permian to upper Cretaceous times. It is well known that geological discontinuities such as joints, fractures, faults, etc., play a signicant role in seismic activity associated with active mining [25]. The area has been interrupted by an oblique fault trending ENE-WSW. Three mine entries of 4 m height and 6 m width, dipping easterly are planned for the development of new underground coal mine from the existing open pit highwall. The conversion of the open pit slope to underground entry uses an aggressive and novel combination of blasting and machinery excavation using continuous miners. Hence, a sophisticated microseismic monitoring system is employed to understand the response of rock mass to such disturbances and for monitoring slope instabilities in real time. The

study is initiated as a preliminary tool to identify the impact of these three entries on the highwall slope of the erstwhile opencast mine. 3. Methodology For achieving the best possible results and industrial benets, few important parameters such as low cost, reliability of source parameters, geological disturbances, nature of rock are considered prior to the design of the sensors array. The primary aim of the investigation is also to determine the event frequency, moment magnitude (Mo), peak particle velocity (PPV) more precisely in a continuous mode and to superimpose the data on the mine map without human interaction in real time [26]. Hence, it is decided to go for triaxial geophones array along the monitoring slope. The P-wave arrivals from the seismograms are utilized for fully automatic seismic data processing. 4. Hardware settings and experimental setup In order to monitor the mining induced microseismicity, a dedicated whole waveform stand alone recording system is installed on the highwall. The number of sensors and channels are based on the volume of rockmass, the desired location accuracy, the signal level expected, rock formations and the local site conditions. The system is based on the ESGs paladin recorders, which offered six channels, 24 bit resolution continuous data acquisition at a sampling frequency of up to 10 kHz and Ethernet TCP/IP telemetry, GPS time receiver for time synchronisation of the events, omni-and uni-directional antennas and radio set up for transmitting the seismic signals. 4.1. Sensors For reliable measurement of seismicity, the sensors should surround the volume of rock being monitored [13]. An array of ve high sensitivity (43.3 V/m/s), 15 Hz omni directional triaxial

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Fig. 1. Geographical location and regional geology of the study area.

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Map showing the geological and geographical location of the opencast mine

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geophones with the frequency range of 61000 Hz are installed in ve vertical boreholes at various depths (Fig. 2). The array is designed such that the inter-sensor distance is less than 200 m to achieve event location accuracy within 5 m. The use of tri-axial sensors in the array allows for waveform polarization analysis and to reduce uncertainties in P-and S-wave identication [15]. 4.2. Data acquisition networks The seismic data collection and analysis at the central processing site have multiple stages of data transformation (Fig. 3). In the rst stage, the analogue seismic signals from the geophones are transmitted to the seismic data loggers. Each data logger is congured with a separate Internet Protocol (IP) address. The data logger has the ability to store and transmit the information to a centralised repeater. In the second stage, the data can be stored at the data logger or transferred to a central repeater point through a combination of wireless uni-and onmi-directional radio antennas. In the third stage, the repeater station transmits the data to the data acquisition PC or a centralised computer. The data is available in real time mode at the web enabled centralised processing station and accessible to any internet network. Later, the triggers are examined for discrete seismic events. In earlier systems, the use of mining companys general purpose LANs for seismic data transmission has met with the mixed success [26]. However, in the present case the data processing and acquisition is successful with wireless setup on the real time mode. High standard of maintenance of the connectivity for uninterrupted ow of data across the network is ensured, which became the major requirement in extreme opencast mine weather conditions. 5. Observation The main task during the preliminary phase is to determine the level of seismic activity based on the number of seismic events in the monitoring region. Magnitude and locations are the rst order output for recorded microseismic events [27]. The P-wave arrivals are preferred over the S-wave arrivals, due to relative simplicity, and accuracy, which are most essential for locating the seismic event hypocenter within the given volume of rock [28,29]. The source location accuracy depends on the efciency in reduction of the noise from the recorded seismic signal [25]. A trial blast is

conducted with known source co-ordinates for determining the velocity of P waves in the given rock mass stratum, and for the sensor orientation. In order to monitor the seismic response of the rock mass, a simple 2-D model consisting of the geology log information is developed. This is used to create a layered velocity model with different layers representing the litho stratigraphy of the site. The simplex ray trace routine is used as an advanced event location algorithm. The routine allowed the layered velocity model to be as input. It also makes use of azimuth and dip information of the strata from the P wave polarization analysis in the location solution. The P-wave polarization of each event is determined with the rst arrival P wave hodogram analysis. 6. Results and discussion A total of 11,458 triggers are recorded in the geophones within the study period. The study is based on the 228 events which exhibit clear seismogram recorded in the geophones, developed at micro levels in various places around the monitoring volume of rockmass. 219 events had their hypocenters around the monitored pit slope. Generally, the seismic events will tend to align as a group either in the existing geological structures or around the mine operation taking place underground or along the direction of plane of weakness. This principle is applied to monitor the mine highwall for understanding the behaviour of seismicity induced due to underground mining operations against the highwall failure. It is expected that the stress developed due to the underground opening might also get prolonged with the excavation direction that would affect the stability of the highwall. But the results proved that the events aligned along the direction perpendicular to the direction of extraction. This suggested that the plane of weakness may exists in the direction perpendicular to the direction of underground opening, which are conrmed from the borehole section (Fig. 4). Also, the results suggested that the oblique fault trending eastwest which is expected to play a critical part in the stability of the overlying highwall stratum, is not disturbed due to the underground extraction. 6.1. Seismic clusters as a tool Seismic clusters are used to classify the points within the given seismic volume into zones of similar seismic response. In the present study, the events are classied into clusters on the

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Wi-Lan radio antenna

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Fig. 3. Schematic layout of the seismic instrumentation setup.

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Fig. 4. Seismic events recorded in the geophones along the highwall slope.

basis of seismic attributes such as the location of hypocenters of the seismic events in space, Mo calculated in a scale of 2 to +2 and PPV from 5 to 250 mm/s. Few seismic events clusters are identied along the slope at depths of 10, 35 and 75 m respectively (Fig. 5). The map with the seismic clusters clearly depicted the progressive path of underground mining entries. It is observed that the source parameter estimates for events with moment magnitudes less than 1 are insignicant, with the seismic cluster surrounding geophones [14]. The seismic energy released by these events will be very low. The cluster surrounding the most top layer of the strata consisted predominantly of events with the moderate magnitude values. A gradual development in the underground mine operation is marked by the increase in higher magnitude events with increased PPV values. At early stage of the monitoring, the events are characterised with lower magnitude values, aligning in the direction perpendicular to the direction of underground excavation. The cluster at the greater depth (>70 m) is characterized by more number of high magnitude events and the PPV values.

6.2. Seismic event impact contour Apart from the seismic event clusters discussed above, large numbers of events are found highly scattered along the highwall which might have signicant impact on the highwall stability. A signicant number of events in this category possess higher Mo values (01) and PPV values greater than 75 mm/s surrounding the underground excavation. It is observed that these events have a critical part if the slope fails since the size of rock failure events can be directly related to the moment magnitude [29]. The highest moment magnitude recorded is 0.83 with PPV value of 100 mm/s beneath the working pit. The seismic impacts with high magnitude at the bottom of the pit indicated the effect of blasting, the initial method practised for removing the overburden rock mass to make entry for underground mine. A sharp decrease in the Mo and PPV values of the events is marked with shift in drilling mechanism from blasting to continuous miner. The seismic event impact contour map is based on the average level of event density, peak particle velocity and moment

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Moment magnitude 2 -2

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Fig. 6. Event impact contour map of the monitoring regions based on the seismic event density.

magnitude of the events. Fig. 6 represents the typical event impact contour map for analysing the impact of induced seismicity. Stage wise reports of induced seismicity versus excavation progress are generated and analysed for the estimation of the seismic impact along the region. The signicant results are obtained from the seismic potentiality within the sensor range for a period of time. This provided a visualization tool for analyzing the status of slope and the level of seismic activity on the region. The event impact contour map suggests that the seismic impact around the slope due to these events decreases as the excavation advances. Few strong events at the early stages are triggered at the slope face due to blasting. The results suggest that there are no serious stability issues noticed along the highwall slope by the seismic events induced by the mining operations generated due to the development of underground mine opening. The rock mass is found stable during the entire monitoring period and no sign of failure has been observed during the time. 7. Conclusions The preliminary results obtained from the seismic monitoring technique employed to assess the stability of highwall slope in an Indian opencast coal mine has been discussed. Numerous seismic signals are recorded in three seismic stations during the

observation period. The seismic source parameters such as peak particle velocity (PPV), moment magnitude (Mo) and the event hypocenter localization are used for characterizing the behaviour of seismic events inside the rock mass along the highwall slope of the mine. The simplex ray trace routine is adopted as backend tool for the rst arrival P wave hodogram analysis. The P wave arrival timings are used for dening the locations of the recorded seismic events and hypocenter. An event accuracy of 5 m on all the planes is targeted with considerable success. The observations discussed in the paper are based on the 229 seismic recordings from the geophones which exhibit clear seismogram. The seismic event clusters and event impact contour maps provided an excellent tool to assess the in situ stability conditions of the slope in real time. They also provided resourceful information regarding the behaviour of seismic events within the given rockmass. From results, it is understood that there are few high magnitude events of range greater than +0.5 are generated due to the blasting at the slope and the gradual decrease in moment magnitude and PPV is marked with a change in excavation method at later stages. The mining operations carried out underground below the monitored slope are not intensive to cause neither any effect on the pre existing geological structures along highwall nor slope failure and the rock mass is stable. With the understanding of induced seismicity around the slope and by improved day to

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day reporting, it will also be possible to forecast the mechanisms associated with slope movements in future. Acknowledgments

[13]

[14]

The research work is a part of the S&T project High resolution microseismic monitoring for early detection and analysis of slope failure in opencast mines funded by Ministry of Coal, Government of India and The Singareni Collieries Co Ltd (SCCL), Andhra Pradesh. The Ofcials of Central Mining Planning and Design Institute, India and Manuguru Opencast Mines, SCCL, Andhra Pradesh are thanked for the extended support offered by them during the research work. References
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