Sustainability, Vol. 12, Pages 2588: Application of Bolter Miner Rapid Excavation Technology in Deep Underground Roadway in Inner Mongolia: A Case Study (Sustainability)

Rapid excavation could mitigate the imbalance relationship between excavation speed and production needs that plays a pivotal role in the sustainable development of large underground coal mines. This paper provides a case study on Bolter Miner Rapid Excavation Technology (BMRET) in Menkeqing Coal Mine, which has a high production of 13 million tons per year in Inner Mongolia. The temporal characterization of excavation procedures is analyzed in detail based on field monitoring data. The improvement of the roadway driving process and efficiency under a new support design is introduced, and corresponding evaluation methods, including parallel operation index () and unit drilling-hole index (), are proposed for BMRET. A field application is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the improved BMRET, which fully considers the structure characteristic of the bolter miner machine. The performance and reliability of this new support scheme are monitored in terms of roadway convergence and axial force of cable through professional instrumentation programs in the field. The results show that the average excavation speed of the BMRET is 36.15 m/day (1080 m/month), an increase of 99.72% compared with the original excavation technology, which indicates that the BMRET could provide high efficiency in roadway excavation and effectively control the stability of deep roadways. It is pivotal to apply BMRET to ensure sustainable and highly efficient coal production. This case study provides reference and guidance for rapid excavation of deep underground roadways with similar geological conditions.