Solution of yielding steel arch supports used in mining

Steel arch supports are used in mines and underground structures to provide stability. Most of the supports are made up of overlapping arches. They can behave either yieldingly or unyieldingly. If the normal force at any point of overlapping equals the slip resistance, the slide occurs. This paper presents a solution procedure for determining the load-carrying capacity of steel arch supports in the yielding implementation. This solution considers the effects of several significant elements, including differing materials and the number of clamps in yielding friction joints. The direct stiffness method is applied. The solution contains geometric, physical, and structural nonlinearity. The results obtained from numerical modeling using the provided procedure are compared to laboratory tests conducted at GIG Katowice in 2012. They show a good correlation with previously collected data from equivalent laboratory conditions.