The purpose of this paper is to establish a qualitative method to estimate the risk level (e.g. rating and ranking) resulting from mining activity. Risk is the product of two factors: probability of failure and cost of consequences. A resultant assessment scale matrix is then used to assign a risk index value which is directly proportional to the potential for excavation instability. A case study, the #1 Shear East orebody at Vale’s Garson Mine in Sudbury Ontario will be examined in this paper. A three-dimensional, elastoplastic, finite difference model (FLAC 3D) is presented for a mine development intersection situated 1.5 km below ground surface. The developed assessment scale matrix is used to estimate risk index for intersection (2981) located on 5000 level. The results are presented and categorized with respect to risk-index value, probability of instability, cost of consequence, and mining stage.

The stability of mine developments is of utmost importance during the planned period of production or the life of a mine plan. Many Canadian underground mines use transverse stoping with delayed backfill to extract tabular ore deposits. These methods require access to the orebody through a number of sill drives and cross cuts which link the orezone to the haulage drift hence creating intersections on multiple levels. This paper presents the results of a study on the stability of mine development intersections at Garson Mine of Vale in Sudbury, ON, Canada. Multi-point borehole extensometers (MPBX) are used to monitor the rock deformations of an intersection as mining activities progress. The monitoring results are used to calibrate a multi-level FLAC3D numerical model, which has been developed to assess the stability of the intersection. It is shown that stope extraction causes a lateral shift to the intersection, accompanied by high shear stress in the roof. It is also shown that same-level mining has stronger influence on the stability of the intersection than lower-level mining.

NULL

External confinement of concrete columns by means of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets can be considered as an efficient technique for their structural strengthening. An experimental research program including 18 circular short column specimens were tested under axial compression load, to investigate the gain strength of reinforced concrete (RC) columns confined with CFRP sheets. The parameters studied were both the volume and configurations of CFRP sheets, the size of cross-section, the percentage of main reinforcement, and the volume of internal stirrups. On the basis of the obtained results, mathematical models (Egyptian code and American Concrete Institute code) proposed to predict the axial compressive strength of non-slender RC column strengthened by means of CFRP sheets are evaluated. These codes showed an underestimation in predicting the axial compressive strength of RC strengthened columns. This, from the authors’ point of view, is attributed mainly to the fact that the proposed models overlooked the amount of internal stirrups when calculating the strength of strengthened columns. Therefore, modifications in the studied models were considered. The modifications take the effective lateral confining pressure due to presence of internal steel stirrups into account. The modified codes showed an acceptable approach to the experimental results.

External confinement of concrete columns by means of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets can be considered as an efficient technique for their structural strengthening. An experimental research program including 18 circular short column specimens were tested under axial compression load, to investigate the gain strength of reinforced concrete (RC) columns confined with CFRP sheets. The parameters studied were both the volume and configurations of CFRP sheets, the size of cross-section, the percentage of main reinforcement, and the volume of internal stirrups. On the basis of the obtained results, mathematical models (Egyptian code and American Concrete Institute code) proposed to predict the axial compressive strength of non-slender RC column strengthened by means of CFRP sheets are evaluated. These codes showed an underestimation in predicting the axial compressive strength of RC strengthened columns. This, from the authors’ point of view, is attributed mainly to the fact that the proposed models overlooked the amount of internal stirrups when calculating the strength of strengthened columns. Therefore, modifications in the studied models were considered. The modifications take the effective lateral confining pressure due to presence of internal steel stirrups into account. The modified codes showed an acceptable approach to the experimental results.

— The growing importance of the knowledge-intensive service-based knowledge organizations and resultant dynamic capabilities, and facilitate service innovation Interval model can be used to describe nonlinear dynamic systems. Control of an inverted pendulum on a carriage which moves in a horizontal path, is one of the classic problems in the area of control. The basic aim of our work was to design appropriate controller to control the angle of the pendulum and the position of the cart in order to stabilize the inverted pendulum system. The main objective of this paper to keep the stabilization of the inverted pendulum based on the simplification of rule base. The proposed fuzzy control scheme successfully fulfills the control objectives and also has an excellent stabilizing ability to overcome the external impact acting on the pendulum system. This paper presents an application of how to design and validate a real time neuro fuzzy controller of complex a nonlinear dynamic system using the Matlab-Simulink Real-Time Workshop environment. Once the controller is obtained and validated by simulation, it’s implemented to control the pendulum-cart system. The design and optimization process of neuro fuzzy controller are based on an extended learning technique derived from adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). The design and implementation of this pendulum-cart control system has been realized under MATLAB/SIMULINK environment. The experimental results demonstrate the efficiency of the simplified design procedure and ensured stability of this system

Qualitative modeling is one promising approach to the solution of difficult tasks automation if qualitative process models are not available. This contribution presents a new concept of qualitative dynamic process modeling using so called Dynamic Adaptive Neuro fuzzy Systems. In contrast to common approaches of Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy modeling [1], the dynamic system is completely described in the neuro fuzzy domain: the neuro fuzzy information about the previous state is directly applied to compute the system’s current state, i.e. the delayed neuro fuzzy output is feedback to the input without defuzzification. Knowledge processing in such dynamic neuro fuzzy systems requires a new inference method, the inference with interpolating rules. This yields the framework of a new systems theory the essentials of which are given in further section of the paper. First, an identification method is presented, using a combination of linguistic knowledge. Next, a stability definition for dynamic neuro fuzzy systems as well as methods for stability analysis is given. Finally, a neuro fuzzy model-based neuro fuzzy controller design method is developed. The identification of real problems and neuro fuzzy controller design for inverted pendulum system demonstrate the significance of the new systems theory.