Rigby, A, Moridi, M, Hafeez, F, Malovichko, D & Kaiser, PK 2026, 'Case studies of strainburst demand assessment', in D Cumming-Potvin & J Wesseloo (eds), Ground Support 2026: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Ground Support in Mining, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Perth, pp. 1-14, https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_repo/2625_46
(https://papers.acg.uwa.edu.au/p/2625_46_Rigby/)
Abstract: During a tunnel strainburst, there is a rapid stress fracturing and bulking of rock, which imposes a simultaneous displacement and energy demand on the support system. The strainburst also constitutes a seismic source/event, the low-frequency radiation of which will be dominated by convergence of the surrounding rock mass into the tunnel, leading to a crush-type mechanism. Unlike cases of shakedown, it is not appropriate to estimate strainburst demand based on the intensity of ground motion (e.g. peak ground velocity/peak particle velocity) calculated from the size (potency, energy, or magnitude) of this event and its distance to tunnels. Instead, the fracturing/bulking process should be assessed more directly, which can be done by using a combination of geomechanical and seismic data. This paper presents such assessments for 2 case studies from a Western Australian hard rock mine. In each case, the estimated strainburst demand is also compared with the remnant capacity of the installed ground support. Performing such assessments on past events helps to better understand the demand that could be posed by future strainbursts, which can be used to guide support selection/design.

Keywords: strainburst demand, remnant support capacity, rockburst hazard