Measurement of overburden failure zones in close-multiple coal seams mining

In the Kaiping Coal field, mining of five coal seams, located within 80 m in the Kailuan Group, #5, #7, #8,#9 and #12 coal seam, is difficult due to small interburden thickness, concentrated stress distributions,high coal seam metamorphism, and complex geological conditions. By using the ZTR12 geological penetration radar(GPR) survey combined with borehole observations, the overburden caving due to mining of the five coals seams was measured. The development characteristics of full-cover rock fractures after mining were obtained from the GPR scan, which provides a measurement basis for the control of rock strata in close multiple coal seam mining. For the first time, it was found that the overburden caving pattern shows a periodic triangular caved characteristic. Furthermore, it is proposed that an upright triangular collapsed pile masonry and an inverted triangular with larger fragments piled up alternately appear in the lower gob. The research results show that the roof structure formed in the gob area can support the key overlying strata, which is beneficial to ensure the integrity and stability of the upper coal seams in multiple-seam mining of close coal seams.     

Domino instability effect of surrounding rock-coal pillars in a room-and-pillar gob

To discuss the domino instability effect and large area roof falling and roof accidents of surrounding rock-coal pillars in a room-and-pillar gob, the equilibrium equation for a roof-coal pillar-floor system with the influence of mining floor was developed based on the engineering conditions of the surrounding rock in a room-and-pillar gob in the 3^?2 coal seam of Tanggonggou mine. The conditions of system instability and the relationship between system stability and system stiffness were analyzed from an energetic point of view. Numerical simulation using the discrete element software UDEC was also carried out to simulate conditions causing the domino effect on surrounding rock-coal pillars in a 3^?2 room-and-pillar gob. The results show that: if we want the system to destabilize, the collective energy in roof-and-floor must be larger than that in the coal pillar. When the stiffness of the coal pillars and the roof-and-floor are both greater than zero, the system is stable. When the stiffness of the coal pillars is negative but the summed stiffness of the coal pillars and roof-and-floor is larger than or equal to zero, the system is statically destroyed. When the sum of the coal pillars and the roof-floor stiffness is negative, the system suffers from severe damages. For equal advance distances of the coal mining face, the wider coal pillars can reduce the probability of domino type instability. Conversely, the smaller width pillars can increase the instability probability. Domino type instability of surrounding rock-coal pillars is predicted to be unlikely when the width of coal pillars is not less than 8 m.     

条带开采煤层间岩体应力分析

在材料力学简支梁理论基础上,建立了多煤层条带开采上下条带的煤柱完全不对齐时煤层间岩体的力学模型,分析并计算了各种地质和采矿因素(如采深、层间距、采出率等)对多煤层层间岩体稳定性的影响,研究了层间岩体应力的变化规律,并得出了层间距及下煤层采宽对保持煤层间岩体的稳定性有着重要作用的结论.最后结合峰峰矿区开采实例,预计了一定采深下,合理的下煤层采宽.     

Systematic principles of surrounding rock control in longwall mining within thick coal seams

Effective surrounding rock control is a prerequisite for realizing safe mining in underground coal mines.In the past three decades, longwall top-coal caving mining(LTCC) and single pass large height longwall mining(SPLL) found expanded usage in extracting thick coal seams in China. The two mining methods lead to large void space left behind the working face, which increases the difficulty in ground control.Longwall face failure is a common problem in both LTCC and SPLL mining. Such failure is conventionally attributed to low strength and high fracture intensity of the coal seam. However, the stiffness of main components included in the surrounding rock system also greatly influences longwall face stability.Correspondingly, surrounding rock system is developed for LTCC and SPLL faces in this paper. The conditions for simultaneous balance of roof structure and longwall face are put forward by taking the stiffness of coal seam, roof strata and hydraulic support into account. The safety factor of the longwall face is defined as the ratio between the ultimate bearing capacity and actual load imposed on the coal wall.The influences provided by coal strength, coal stiffness, roof stiffness, and hydraulic support stiffness,as well as the movement of roof structure are analyzed. Finally, the key elements dominating longwall face stability are identified for improving surrounding rock control effectiveness in LTCC and SPLL faces.     

Feasibility analysis of gob-side entry retaining on a working face in a steep coal seam

Based on the decline in exploitation of coal resources, steep coal seam mining and mining face tensions continue to explore the feasibility analysis of steeply inclined faces in the gob. One of the key factors in utilizing the technology of gob-side entry retaining in steep coal seams is to safely and effectively prevent caving rock blocks from rushing into the gob-side entry by sliding downwards along levels. Using theoretical analysis and field methods, we numerically simulated the mining process on a fully-mechanized face in a steep coal seam. The stress and deformation process of roof strata has been analyzed, and the difficulty of utilizing the technology is considered and combined with practice in a steep working face in Lvshuidong mine. The feasibility of utilizing the technology of gob-side entry retaining in a steep coal seam has been recognised. We propose that roadways along the left lane offshoot body use a specially-made reinforced steel dense net to build a dense rock face at the lower head. The results show that the lane offshoot branch creates effective roof control, safe conditions for roadway construction workers, and practical application of steeply inclined gob.     

无煤柱分阶段沿空留巷煤与瓦斯共采方法与应用

针对深井高瓦斯低透气性煤层群的典型赋存特征,结合淮南矿区千米深井无煤柱煤与瓦斯工程实践,提出了改进Y型通风模式,即分阶段沿空留巷方法,完善了对共采工程的维控预应力锚固技术.工程实践表明:预应力锚固技术可以实现深井强动压开采过程中对沿空留巷和回风巷道围岩稳定的有效维控,至第1阶段结束,留巷顶板下沉量为144mm,两帮移近量为351mm,分阶段沿空留巷对共采巷道的维护时间缩短了4/5.减少了留巷变形速度稳定后累计变形的不利影响.超前工作面布置的瓦斯抽采工程中,单孔抽采瓦斯浓度(体积分数)达到40%,实现了煤与瓦斯共采.     

Numerical simulation and damage analysis of fissure field evolution law in a single coal seam mining

Based on the different deformation and failure laws of coal and rock materials under tensile or compressive loads, the damage variable was defined to divide three phases from the damage and rupture point of view in order to reveal the fissured field evolution characteristics and spatial distribution of coal and rock in the single coal seam mining with low permeability and rich methane. According to the corresponding damage constitutive equations, the secondary development of the finite element program was completed. The fissures field evolution law of a coal mine with single coal seam mining was calculated and analyzed by this new program and the distribution areas and failure degree of the surrounding coal and rock structures with damage, fissure or rupture are given on the condition of mining. This paper provides a scientific basis for quantitative research and evaluation of the safe simultaneous production of coal and gas.     

Support technology for mine roadways in extreme weakly cemented strata and its application简

For the engineering geology conditions of bad mine roadway roof and floor lithology in extremely weak cemented strata, the best section shape of the roadway is determined from the study of tunnel surrounding rock displacement, plastic zone and stress distribution in rectangular, circle arch and arch wall sections, respectively. Based on the mining depth and thickness of the coal seam, roadway support technology solutions with different buried depth and thickness of coal seam are proposed. Support schemes are amended and optimized in time through monitoring data of the deformation of roadway, roof separation, I-beam bracket, bolt and anchor cable force to ensure the long-term stability and security of the roadway surrounding rock and support structure. The monitoring results show that mine roadway support schemes for different buried depth and section can be adapted to the characteristics of ground pressure and deformation of the surrounding rock in different depth well, effectively control the roadway surrounding rock deformation and the floor heave and guarantee the safety of construction and basic stability of surrounding rock and support structure.     

晋城矿区9号煤沿空留巷试验研究

结合具体条件进行了巷旁充填支护参数设计 ,在矿压观测基础上 ,分析了留巷围岩变形及充填体载荷特征 ,把高水速凝充填材料沿空留巷与炮掘及综掘成巷方法进行经济对比 ,结果表明 ,该留巷方法有明显技术和经济优势 ,在晋城矿区 9号煤中有很好推广应用价值 .     

Comparative study of model tests on automatically formed roadway and gob-side entry driving in deep coal mines

Automatically formed roadway(AFR) by roof cutting with bolt grouting(RCBG) is a new deep coal mining technology. By using this technology, the broken roadway roof is strengthened, and roof cutting is applied to cut off stress transfer between the roadway and gob to ensure the collapse of the overlying strata. The roadway is automatically formed owing to the broken expansion characteristics of the collapsed strata and mining pressure. Taking the Suncun Coal Mine as the engineering background, the control effect of this new technology on roadways was studied. To compare the law of stress evolution and the surrounding rock control mechanisms between AFR and traditional gob-side entry driving, a comparative study of geomechanical model tests on the above methods was carried out. The results showed that the new technology of AFR by RCBG effectively reduced the stress concentration of the roadway compared with gob-side entry driving. The side abutment pressure peak of the solid coal side was reduced by 24.3%, which showed an obvious pressure-releasing effect. Moreover, the position of the side abutment pressure peak was far from the solid coal side, making it more beneficial for roadway stability. The deformation of AFR surrounding rock was also smaller than the deformation of the gob-side entry driving by the overload test. The former was more beneficial for roadway stability than the latter under higher stress conditions. Field application tests showed that the new technology can effectively control roadway deformation. Moreover, the technology reduced roadway excavation and avoided resource waste caused by reserved coal pillars.     

Time-domain characteristics of overlying strata failure under condition of longwall ascending mining

Ascending mining is one of the most effective ways to solve problems of water inrush, gas outburst and rock burst in coal seams mining. In order to reveal the law of motion and spatiotemporal relationship of overlaying strata, field measurement has been done in a mine. Long distance drillings were constructed from 4# coal seam to 6# coal seam at several certain typical positions, and movement and failure law of overlying strata after mining was analyzed by drilling video and observing the fluid leakage. Besides, we also analyzed the spatiotemporal development law of overlying strata failure with different mining heights and time intervals in the lower coal seam. The results show that: ascending mining is significantly affected by time-domain characteristics of overlaying strata failure after the lower coal seam’s mining, height equations of caving zone and fractured zone are given in this paper, and the feasibility of ascending mining was compartmentalized concretely according to the spatiotemporal relationship. Research methods and conclusions of this paper have certain referential significance for the study of ascending mining, mining under water, mining under building, mining under railway and stress-relief mining.     

F-structure model of overlying strata for dynamic disaster prevention in coal mine

The rupture and movement scope of overlying strata upon the longwall mining face increased sharply as the exploitation scale and degree growing recently, and the spatial structure formed by fractured strata became much more complex. The overlying strata above the working face and adjacent gobs would affect each other and move cooperatively because small pillar can hardly separate the connection of overlying strata between two workfaces, which leads to mining seismicity in the gob and induces rockburst disaster that named spatial structure instability rockburst in this paper. Based on the key stratum theory, the F-structure model was established to describe the overlying strata characteristic and rockburst mechanism of workface with one side of gob and the other side un-mined solid coal seam. The results show that F-structure in the gob will re-active and loss stability under the influence of neighboring mining, and fracture and shear slipping in the process of instability is the mechanism of the seismicity in the gob. The F-structure was divided into two categories that short-arm F and long-arm F structure based on the state of strata above the gob. We studied the underground pressure rules of different F-structure and instability mechanism, thus provide the guide for prevention and control of the F-structure spatial instability rockburst. The micro-seismic system is used for on-site monitoring and researching the distribution rules of seismic events, the results confirmed the existence and correct of F-spatial structure. At last specialized methods for prevention seismicity and rockburst induced by F-structure instability are proposed and applied in Huating Coal Mine.     

Mechanical behavior of coal under different mining rates: A case study from laboratory experiments to field testing

During deep mining, the excavation disturbance stress path is the domination factor for the stability of the surrounding rock mass as well as the ground pressure. One of the important parameters of the stress path is the loading or unloading rate of the disturbed rock or coal, which depended on the mining rate. To achieve a well understanding of the mining rate and its effect on the coal behavior, a preliminary case investigation of the mechanical properties of the coal at the various mining rates in both the laboratory scale and field scale was performed. Based on the uniaxial compression test and the digital image correlation(DIC) method, the mechanical behavior of the coal samples, such as the evolution of the strength,surface deformation, crack propagation, and elastic strain energy of the coal under the various loading rates were analyzed. A threshold range of the loading rate has been observed. The uniaxial compressive strength(UCS) and releasable elastic strain energy(Ue) increase with increasing loading rate when the loading rate is below the threshold. Otherwise, the UCS and Uemay decrease with the loading rate.Under the low loading rate( 0.05 mm/min), the tensile deformation of the original defects could result in crack coalescence, whereas failure of the coal matrix is the key contributor to the crack coalescence under the high loading rate(greater than 0.05 mm/min). Afterwards, with the consideration of the bearing capacity(UCS) and energy release of the mining-disturbed coal mass(Ue), a power exponential relationship between the mining rate(MR) in the field and the critical loading rate(vc) in the laboratory was proposed. The application potential of the formulas was then validated against the field monitored data.Finally, based on the critical loading rate, the released strain energy, and the monitored pressure on the roof supports, a reasonable mining rate MRfor the Ji 15-31030 working face was determined to be approximately 3 m/d.     

巷道与上部煤柱边缘间水平距离X的选择

巷道与上部煤柱边缘之间的水平距离X,是底板岩巷和邻近煤层巷道布置的重要参数。本文根据矿山压力的研究成果,阐述了上部煤层采动状况,巷道围岩性质,巷道与上部煤层之间的垂距Z、以及巷道与上部煤柱边缘间水平距离X间的定量关系,为正确选择X值及巷道与上部煤层回采空间的相对位置关系提供了主要依据。     

松软厚煤层综放沿空巷道支护技术数值研究及应用

针对松软破碎厚煤层综放沿空巷道围岩变形破坏特征,建立沿空巷道原始围岩结构计算模型,模拟计算各种不同支护设计方案,优化支护参数,选定安全经济的支护方案.数值计算和现场工业性试验表明,U型钢支架壁后充填技术(顶部充填)能够满足工程要求.     

Control over Surrounding Rocks Deformation of Soft Floor and Whole-Coal Gateways with Trapezoidal Supports

In Gengcun Colliery, Yima Coal Group Co. Ltd.the characteristics of the gateways of thick coal seam and the coal seam is with fully mechanized sublevel caving mining are that the thickness of roof coal seam of gateways is larger, their surrounding rocks are the whole-coal mass and the coal seam is prone to Spontaneous Combustion. With the natural equilibrium arch theory, the reasonable adjacent distance of No. 11 mine-type metal supports was calculated in trapezoidal gateways based on these characteristics. Then, in-situ supporting experiments were carried out. There sults indicate that under the action of virgin rock stress, the width of broken rocks zone of surrounding rocks is 1.7-2.0m in return heading and 1.1-1.3 m in going headway. And their surrounding rocks belong to the Ⅳ-type soften rock and the Ⅲ-type common surrounding rock respectively. Therefore, under the movable abutment pressure, the gateways deformation is serious. It is suggested that the designed gateways have to use pre-broadened cross section to suit their deformation. At the same time, the accumulated water on gateway floor must be drained in time. These measures weretaken in the 1302 and 1304 coal faces in Gengcun Colliery, and the satisfactory results have been obtained.     

Simulation of recovery of upper remnant coal pillar while mining the ultra-close lower panel using longwall top coal caving

With the depletion of easily minable coal seams, less favorable reserves under adverse conditions have to be mined out to meet the market demand. Due to some historical reasons, large amount of remnant coal was left unrecovered. One such case history occurred with the remnant rectangular stripe coal pillars using partial extraction method at Guandi Mine, Shanxi Province, China. The challenge that the coal mine was facing was that there is an ultra-close coal seam right under it with an only 0.8–1.5 m sandstone dirt band in between. The simulation study was carried out to investigate the simultaneous recovery of upper remnant coal pillars while mining the ultra-close lower panel using longwall top coal caving(LTCC). The remnant coal pillar was induced to cave in as top coal in LTCC system. Physical modelling shows that the coal pillars are the abutments of the stress arch structure formed within the overburden strata. The stability of overhanging roof strata highly depends on the stability of the remnant coal pillars. And the gob development(roof strata cave-in) is intermittent with the cave-in of these coal pillars and the sandstone dirt band. FLAC3 D numerical modelling shows that the multi-seam interaction has a significant influence on mining-induced stress environment for mining of lower panels. The pattern of the stress evolution on the coal pillars with the advance of the lower working face was found. It is demonstrated that the stress relief of a remnant coal pillar enhances the caveability of the pillars and sandstone dirt band below.     

多煤层采区岩层移动相似材料的模拟研究

通过对平顶山煤业集团公司八矿多煤层采区同采条件下,下部煤层开采对上部煤层开采影响的相似材料模拟试验结果的分析,得出了下组煤层开采时上覆岩层的移动及变形规律、有关岩层移动参数、上组煤层巷道变形预计方法及采动影响的时空关系．     

Coal and rock fissure evolution and distribution characteristics of multi-seam mining

Henan Pingdingshan No.10 mine is prone to both coal and gas outbursts. The E_9–10 coal seam is the main coal-producing seam but has poor quality ventilation, thus making it relatively difficult for gas extraction. The F₁₅ coal seam, at its lower section, is not prone to coal and gas outbursts. The average seam separation distance of 150 m is greater than the upper limit for underside protective seam mining. Based on borehole imaging technology for field exploration of coal and rock fracture characteristics and discrete element numerical simulation, we have studied the evolution laws and distribution characteristics of the coal and rock fissure field between these two coal seams. By analysis of the influential effect of group F coal mining on the E_9–10 coal seam, we have shown that a number of small fissures also develop in the area some 150 m above the overlying strata. The width and number of the fissures also increase with the extent of mining activity. Most of the fissures develop at a low angle or even parallel to the strata. The results show that the mining of the F₁₅ coal seam has the effect of improving the permeability of the E_9–10 coal seam.     

分级循环荷载下保护层开采扰动煤岩强度及裂隙特性研究

针对回采时反复采动作用下的保护层开采扰动煤岩极易诱发巷道围岩失稳的问题,采用分级循环荷载模拟实际回采工程中采动应力的长期作用,研究保护层开采扰动煤岩在循环荷载作用下的力学强度及变形破坏特性. 试验结果表明,在加卸载过程中,受保护层开采扰动煤样的体积膨胀变形明显,煤样内部结构破坏程度比未受保护层开采扰动煤样更高. 在加卸载后期,受保护层开采扰动煤样表现为塑性破坏,未受保护层开采扰动煤样发生明显的脆性破坏. 相比于未受保护层开采扰动煤样,受保护层开采扰动煤样的峰值强度下降,单位体积（直径为50 mm,高度为100 mm）内的煤样裂隙体积显著增加,峰值强度和裂隙体积占比均沿煤层走向分布较为均匀. 处于断层带的未受保护层开采扰动煤样的彼此物性差异较大. 受保护层开采扰动煤样比未受保护层开采扰动煤样更符合“煤岩破坏时,裂隙空间复杂程度与峰值强度存在反向对应分布”规律.