Collapse of cohesive overburden following removal of support

Model tests have been performed in a large centrifuge to investigate the conditions for critical stability of a circular cavity formed by removal of underlying support strata beneath a soft to very soft cohesive overburden. Initial tests used a fixed geometry and were subjected to increasing self-weight by the "gravity turn-on" technique, while later tests utilized a dynamic material extraction process at constant acceleration levels. The mechanics of failure are described and a simple upper-bound analysis is found to predict the critical void size within acceptable limits for a range of the ratio of overburden depth to critical diameter from 0.5 to 1.5.