Effect Of Approximately Vertical Cracks On The Behavior Of Horizontally Lying Roof Strata

IN previous publications1 it was shown that a scalar model of any weighty structure, where the stresses produced are mainly due to gravita-tional forces, will behave similarly to its prototype if the model and proto-type material are the same arid the model is placed in a centrifugal field of force (substituted for the gravitational field) which has been increased in the same proportion as the linear model scale is decreased. This principle is now being applied to a study of the behavior of mine structures in an attempt to determine the laws that control them. The importance of using models as a means of solving mining problems has been discussed previously, yet it may be well to reiterate here that this method of research and type of solution have been productive of far-reaching results in other engineering fields, notably those of hydraulics and aerodynamics. Model research is a comparatively cheap and time-saving method of checking practical experience. Up to the present time the best guide to what will happen underground has been the judgment of the man who has observed most and been longest acquainted with the local conditions. His experimental work underground is limited by the elements of cost, time and danger, while failure is seldom permissible. In a model, as in a test tube, all elements that affect the solution of a problem are under definite control. Each element may be varied independently at will and its effects noted. Experimental work on a small-scale model may there¬fore be performed at a comparatively small expenditure of time and money, instead of on a full scale in the mine, where the cost, time, and danger elements are necessarily great. The experiments described in this paper are to be considered as part of a progress report and a continuation of Technical Paper 425. One object of the research program is to make each experiment point the way for further research on that particular phase of the general problem. The results and conclusions presented here are therefore not to be considered as final, but are to be interpreted as