Impact of intact rock properties on proneness to rockbursting

The ability to assess the proneness of rocks to bursting prior to the development of an underground excavation is critical in order to optimise the design in regards to safety and economics. Six key factors have previously been identified that are known to contribute to rockbursting. They include stress, excavation geometry, excavation rate, mineralogical properties, contrasting geomechanical properties and geological intensifiers. The first three factors relate to in situ and induced stresses, and the last three to intrinsic rock properties. This paper focuses on evaluating the impact of those intrinsic properties on bursting behaviour by using geomechanical test data from previously published 35 case studies and their observed failure modes. The results provide quantitative criteria and a valuable guide to identify rock masses that may be prone to bursting, and thus would benefit from a stress analysis.