Analytical analysis of pullout resistance of the hydraulic expansion rockbolts on a frictionally coupled model

This paper proposes an empirical formula to estimate the shear strength of hydraulic expansion rockbolts. The field experimental results were obtained from eleven pullout tests to evaluate the results computed by the proposed formula. It was found that shear resistance of hydraulic expansion rockbolts significantly depends on the uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus of rock, with high correlation coefficients of 0.7651 and 0.8587, respectively. The developed formula enables estimation of the maximum pullout load in an analytical process without pullout tests in the field. Conversely, due to the poor interlocking at the initial pullout load, the measured displacements were higher than the estimated ones. To reduce the interlocking effects between bolt and rock, we recommend preloading of 29.4 kN. Preload allows reducing the distance between the measured and estimated displacement and making two load-displacement curves practically identical with marginal differences of 1.1 to 1.5 mm at the maximum pullout load.