麻豆直播 of Technology WA School of Mines postgraduate student John Player is an example of how the University鈥檚 students are provided with the chance to perform groundbreaking research.
The 38-year-old returned to university to update his skills after working in the mining industry for several years.
鈥淵ou never stop learning, no matter how long you鈥檝e been in the workforce,鈥� Mr Player said.
After completing his Master of Geotechnical Engineering in 2004, Mr Player started a PhD involving a million dollar research project testing support systems for underground mines under the direction of Professor Ernesto Villaescusa, Chair of Rock Mechanics.聽
Mr Player said his study at WASM had been well worth the extra effort.
鈥淚 know that the work I鈥檝e done at WASM is changing how engineers in the industry design and specify ground support,鈥� he said.
鈥淭hrough our research, we鈥檝e seen that the previously accepted empirical views for designing ground support schemes for dynamic rock failure had many problems.
鈥淭his was due to the difficulty in describing the loading wave that can potentially destroy a mining tunnel and its interaction with the installed rock bolts and support system.鈥�
To test his theory, Mr Player developed and built a million dollar testing facility that breaks the rock bolts used to keep the mining tunnels open during the dynamic load.聽
鈥淭his was a big project that required a major investment of time and money,鈥� he said.
鈥淲e had to develop a lot of the instrumentation and software from scratch.
鈥淭his allowed us to measure and properly quantify the performance of rock bolts and what makes them fail or survive; something that has never been done properly before now.鈥�
The test facility was sponsored by the Minerals and Energy Institute of WA, Geobrugg, Codelco, Atlas Copco, Strata Control Systems (SCS), Dywidag Systems Internation (DSI), Barrick – Kanowna Belle, BHP Billiton – Leinster Nickel, Newmont, Lightening Nickel, KCGM, Garford, Rock Australia, and Goldfields.
Mr Player said the project was still underway and WASM researchers were approaching industry for sponsorship to test and assess the combined reinforcement and support scheme in their world-class facility.
鈥淲e would like to finish what we have started and correlate the results directly to underground performance from dynamic loading,鈥� he said.
鈥淭his is a worthwhile project and I would like to see it through because when it is finished it could make a major difference to the industry.鈥�
