Experimental and theoretical investigation on mechanisms performance of the rock-coal-bolt (RCB) composite system

For coal mines, rock, coal, and rock bolt are the critical constituent materials for surrounding rock in the underground engineering. The stability of the "rock-coal-bolt" (RCB) composite system is affected by the structure and fracture of the coal-rock mass. More rock bolts installed on the rock, more complex condition of the engineering stress environment will be (tensile-shear composite stress is principal). In this paper, experimental analysis and theoretical verification were performed on the RCB composite system with different angles. The results revealed that the failure of the rock-coal (RC) composite specimen was caused by tensile and shear cracks. After anchoring, the reinforcement body formed inside the composite system limits the area where the crack could occur in the specimen. Specifically, shearing damage occurred only around the bolt, and the stress-strain curve presented a better post-peak mechanical property. The mechanical mechanism of the bolt under the combined action of tension and shear stress was analyzed. Additionally, a rock-coal-bolt tensile-shear mechanical (RCBTSM) model was established. The relationship (similar to the exponential function) between the bolt tensile-shear stress and the angle was obtained. Moreover, the influences of the dilatancy angle and bolt diameter of the RCB composite system were also considered and analyzed. Most of the bolts are subjected to the tensile-shearing action in the post-peak stage. The implications of these results for engineering practice indicated that the bolts of the RCB composite system should be prevented from entering the limit shearing state early. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of China University of Mining & Technology.