Determination of the load carrying capacity of closed steel supports used in underground construction and mining

Closed steel supports of different shapes are used in mining and underground constructions. The supports are prefabricated from rolled, usually robust, steel profiles. The load carrying capacity of a support is considerably influenced by the active loading and passive forces. The passive forces are induced by interactions between the support and the surrounding rock mass. The analysis herein comprises three parts: The first part consists of structural geometry processing. The second part involves finding the numerical solution of a statically indeterminate structure for a specified load. The third part is calculation of the load carrying capacity and the components of internal forces and deformations. For this, the force method and numerical integration are used. The Winkler model is applied when the support interacts with the surrounding environment. The load carrying capacity is limited by the slip resistance of the connected parts and it is limited by reaching the ultimate state of the profile. This paper serves as a comprehensive reference for the determination of the load carrying capacity of closed steel supports and includes stepwise derivations of the governing formulas.