Abstract: The bolt-grouting support design for soft rock roadway is a complicated non-linear problem which relates to many factors, such as hydrogeology, engineering geology, mining condition, rock mechanics, etc. To solve this problem, expert system technology in artificial intelligence field has been combined with theoretical research results and practical experience of soft rock roadway bolt-grouting support, due to which an intelligent expert system model for bolt-grouting support design of soft rock roadways has then been proposed. Based on the knowledge of soft rock roadway support engineering, the database of geomechanical properties of soft rock roadway, the database of project cases of soft rock roadway bolt-grouting support design and the database of expert experience knowledge of soft rock roadway bolt-grouting support design have been established. Furthermore, by using three kinds of reasoning strategies (theoretical calculation, BP-ANN and production rule), the core reasoning mechanism of the proposed expert system has been built to optimize the design of the parameters of bolt-grouting support for soft rock roadways. The proposed expert system has then been employed to design a soft rock roadway bolt-grouting support for a soft rock roadway in Huaibei coal mine area and the scientificity and reasonability of the selected parameters of bolt-grouting support for this roadway has been significantly improved. This system has also effectively maintained the stability of the soft rock roadway in the zone.

Key words: soft rock roadway, bolt-grouting support, expert system, intelligent design