The 1150 m deep man shaft at Boulby Mine in Yorkshire, UK was sunk between 1968 and 1974. At the 1056 m level in the Upper Halite, shortly after the excavation and close behind the shaft wall, several 4.5 m long multipoint extensometers were installed at various orientations to monitor the long-term shaft wall convergence. Monitoring of the extensometers occurred sporadically both prior to and after the installation of the lining over an approximately 2430 day duration. This data set provides important insight into the in-situ behavior of large scale creep deformations around the shaft over a long period of time. This paper reviews the long-term convergence data, previous studies of the data and provides several new methods and results from back-calculation exercises using a coupled Python-FLAC3D interface. The coupled interface allowed analysis of thousands of parameters sets with minimal human interaction. Comparisons with analytical solutions and deterministic model runs are also provided to verify that automation is an economical tool that can improve project efficiency.
define/validate design geotechnical properties;
test the appropriateness of constitutive models;
mimic realistic failure modes; and
capture ground-support interactions.
