Pillar Design

Itasca has developed unique and robust approaches to pillar design that recognizes the importance of understanding the rock behavior from intact rock and bedding to joints and faults. Itasca’s software can model the stress-strain response of continuous, blocky, or bedded materials exhibiting plastic, brittle, or creep behaviors. Consequently, any combination of lithology comprising the pillar-floor-roof system can be analyzed. This includes reproducing the complex combination of pillar sloughing (rib rash) and floor heave experienced at different extraction levels and vertical stress levels throughout a mine. Information derived from these pillar-scale models forms an essential input to larger-scale models, which have been used extensively for design of individual panels (width, remnant stub width, and extraction ratio) as well as barrier pillars, and the overall mine layout and extraction ratio. These larger-scale models have been validated through successful back-prediction of the timing and nature of large-scale catastrophic collapses experienced in the region.

Latest News
  • ARMA 2022 Student Design Competition Congratulations to the winners of the American Rock Mechanics Association's (ARMA) 2022 Student Design Competition....
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  • International Slope Stability 2022 Itasca is proud to be a Diamond sponsor of Slope Stability 2022 (October 17-21 |...
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  • Software Benchmark Tests To help with your hardware configuration decisions, Itasca has created an online benchmark speed test...
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Upcoming Events
27 Mar
FLAC3D In-Person Introductory Course
Live in-person introductory training course. This 3-day course provides general feature training addressing basic concepts and recommen... Read More
30 Mar
Griddle In-Person Introductory Course
Live in-person introductory training course. This course provides an overview of the capabilities and features of Rhino3D CAD software ... Read More
3 Apr
FLAC2D In-Person Introductory Course
Live in-person introductory training course. This 3-day course provides a general overview of FLAC2D and covers many basic concepts and... Read More