Advanced Numerical Analysis of Coal Mine Support Systems

Added: May 12, 2011 2:48 pm NOTICE OF INTENT TO ISSUE A PURCHASE ORDER. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Office of Mining Safety and Health Research (OMSHR) hereby announces its intent to issue a purchase order to West Virginin University (WVU) for Advanced Numerical Analysis of Coal Mine Support Systems.

Background and Scope:

Ground falls remain the highest single cause of fatalities and injuries in underground coal mines. Over the five year period, 2003 to 2007 falls of ground were responsible for 40% of all fatalities in underground coal mines. In addition, approximately 1,500 unplanned roof falls are reported annually in underground coal mines. Each of these roof falls represents a failure of the installed roof support systems.
At present, no systematic or universally-accepted practice exists in the coal industry for roof support design. Support design is largely based on local experience or empirically derived methods, such as the Analysis of Roof Bolts (ARBS) method developed by NIOSH. Issues with current design practices include difficulties in quantifying: the contribution of each support element and the effect of supplementary supports, support capacity and stiffness requirements for given rock conditions and the impact of variable rock conditions on the impact of the support intervention. The relatively high rate of ground fall incidents and unplanned roof falls indicate that improved support design strategies are needed to address these issues.

The work consists of three separate tasks. Task 1 is the modeling of bolt shear loading and it will include reviewing literature, model code evaluation, testing and sensitivity analysis, and comparative evaluation of FLAC3D and 3DEC analysis in order to provide recommendations for modeling bolt lateral shear in full scale entry models. Task 2 consists of development of a spreadsheet program that allows calculation of friction angle, cohesion, volumetric strain, dilation angle and Poisson's ratio evolution from the results of a multi-stage triaxial test that require minimal user intervention. Task 3 is to conduct a numerical modeling analysis of a published case study of rock bolt performance in a coal mine using modeling procedures and model development tools provided by NIOSH with the objective to calibrate the models against field performance.

West Virginia University, Dr. Keith Heasley, Professor, Department of Mining Engineering through regular involvement in the development of NIOSH numerical modeling techniques can provide the required service with minimal familiarization and background study that would be required by other contractors who did not partake in the continued development of NIOSH numerical modeling efforts. The proximity of West Virginia University to the NIOSH Pittsburgh campus allows face to face meetings to be held without incurring excessive travel expenses.

Responsible sources that believe they possess the expertise and capabilities identified above are encouraged to submit to the Contracting Officer within 15 days from the posting date of this notice, their written item description/item characteristics and pricing information in the format they choose, not to exceed 10 pages. Please forward the item description and pricing information to Margaret L. Mooney, CDC NIOSH, 626 Cochrans Mill Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15236, Reference 2011-Q-13446. All vendors must be registered in the Central Contractor Registry (CCR) prior to an award of a federal contract. The website is: www.ccr.gov.

The Government will review any/all item descriptions and pricing information submitted and determine if other qualified sources do exist that could provide this requirement. Information received in response will be used solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement.

If no affirmative responses are received within 15 days, in accordance with FAR 13.106-1(b)(1), negotiations will be conducted with West Virginia University, Department of Mining Engineering, 365 Evansdale Drive, Morgantown, WV 26506-6070 as the only source and a purchase order will be issued without any additional notices being posted.