The dynamic characteristics of the hydraulic leg are essential for determining the safe working range of roof supports operating in seams threatened by rock mass tremors. The systematic increase in the support of the hydraulic legs due to deteriorating geological-mining conditions has increased their diameters, which currently exceed 0.32 m for the 1st hydraulic stage. Evaluation of the dynamic properties of the roof support and the hydraulic legs are carried out by the Central Mining Institute through calculation methods as an implementation of the Regulation of the Minister of Energy on occupational safety and health. However, the issue of validating the calculations concerning natural scale studies still needs to be addressed. There are significant limitations in this area due to the technical and metrological capabilities of the testing stations. This paper presents an attempt to evaluate bench testing of a hydraulic leg with 0.32 m of the 1st hydraulic stage diameter for the validation of computational and test methods. Results of previous studies affecting the evaluation of the research methods used are also cited. According to the authors, the optimal and economically justifiable direction is to undertake model tests using numerical analyses and to validate these results, based on the study of models of hydraulic legs that are in use at a reduced scale. The construction of testing stations to ensure adequate dynamic loading for the support of the largest diameter hydraulic legs is currently not economically viable. The problem presented, however, is important given the constantly deteriorating geological-mining conditions and the associated threat of rock mass tremors.

The paper analyses the loss mechanism of roof insulation kits’ performance due to dampness increase in the insulation layers. The analyzed structures were used in standard conditions for ten years and had thermal insulation made of expanded polystyrene with a hydrophobized surface. The dampness of the thermal insulation materials was determined after the referenced period for their future fitness as roof insulation, based on laboratory tests of material samples collected from the structures. They were completed with a computer simulation of heat transfer and dampness in the partition for working conditions specified for ten years, assuming the thermal conductivity was determined for the materials collected from the analyzed roofs. It was discovered that simulation-based calculation dampness values are much lower than those observed after ten years of roof utilization. Additionally, the authors attempted to determine the correlations between the period of thermal insulation materials used in real conditions and the selected properties of the products determined in laboratory tests. To that end, the collected material was dried to constant weight and then subjected to accelerated aging through total immersion in water at room temperature, for twenty-eight days, followed by 300 freeze-thaw cycles at –20°C and +20°C. The results helped conclude that the abovementioned laboratory testing cycle does not allow for assessing the fitness for the use of the referenced products for ten years. The directions of future laboratory tests were set, suggesting extending the testing cycle at least twice.

The paper analyses and develops John Rawls’s defence of his theory of justice against the conservative objection that egalitarian conceptions of social justice are an expression of envy. The defence involves the following claims: (1) The content of the difference principle does not match an essential property of envy. (2) The parties in the original position are not motivated by envy. (3) None of the conditions imposed on the original position arise from envy. Next, it is argued that there are reasons to suppose that the parties in the original position would choose a more egalitarian principle of distributive justice than the difference principle. These reasons are grounded in the claim that self respect is the most important primary good and in the fact that the level of economic inequalities is negatively correlated with self respect among the least advantaged members of society. It is shown that even though the content of the more egalitarian principle matches the essential property of envy, the conservative objection remains unjustified.