Coal and gas outburst is one of the main gas hazards in coal mines. However, due to the risks of the coal and gas outburst, the field test is difficult to complete. Therefore, an effective approach to studying the mechanism and development of outburst is to conduct the similar physical simulation. However, the similarity criteria and similar materials in outburst are the key factors which restrict the development of physical simulation. To solve those problems, this paper has established similarity criteria base on mechanics model, solid-fluid coupling model and energy model, and presented high similar materials. Combining with three groups of similar number, and considering similar mechanical parameters and deformation and failure regularity, the similarity criteria of outburst is determined on the basis of the energy model. According to those criteria, we put forward a similar material consists of pulverized coal, cement, sand, activated carbon, and water. The similar material has high compressive strength and the accordant characteristics with the raw coal, include density, porosity, adsorption, desorption. The new research is promising for preventing and controlling gas hazards in the future.

Tight gas is one important unconventional hydrocarbon resource that is stored in tight sandstone, whose mechanical property greatly influences the tight gas production process and is commonly believed to be simply elastic when designing the stimulation plan. However, the experimental evidence provided in this work surprisingly shows that tight sandstone can deform in a viscoelastic way. Such an unexpected observation poses a challenge in accurately modelling the deformation process. We solve this problem by adopting the fractional Maxwell model to successfully derive the constitutive equation of tight sandstone, based on which not only all the experimental data can be interpreted quantitatively, but also reasonable and consistent predictions as to tight sandstone’s long-term deformation behaviour can be made. We then investigate the typicality of our results in China’s Changqing oilfield, which is one major centre of tight gas production and where the rock samples for experiments are obtained. It is estimated that a non-negligible portion of 18% tight sandstone samples in this area will probably display viscoelasticity. Finally, our work implies that the mechanical properties of other materials may also need further scrutiny to possibly uncover any unexpected behaviour, overlooking which may result in misleading predictions.

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The permeability of coal reservoirs prominently determines methane flow in reservoirs. A large amount of coal reservoirs containing methane, however, have low permeability because pores in reservoirs are sealed. To solve this issue, we investigated the pore structure and permeability law of coal through contrastive analysis of the microstructure and macrostructure before and after acidizing, using ASAP 2020 and triaxial servo-controlled seepage equipment. An analysis of the experimental data revealed the mechanism and the key parameters of acidizing, such as acid mass fraction and acidizing time. In addition, we hold that the optimal mass fraction for the test specimens is about 12~15%. Furthermore, the acid reaction is divided into three stages according to characteristics of the reaction progress. An analysis of the reaction kinetics of "HCl-HF" states that the significant factors will impact the process of reaction, like the composition of coal, surface area of the acid-coal reaction, mass fraction of acids, and environment of the reaction system. The results provide a new idea and research method for further enhancing permeability and gas extraction.

Based on thermal–fluid–solid coupling law in coal and gas outburst, a multi-physical field numerical analysis model is built for the whole outburst process. The response laws of stress, gas pressure, temperature, and seepage in different areas and different time nodes around coal and rock mass in the coal and gas outburst under high stress condition are discussed. Research results show: Firstly, the stress response law of the coal and rock mass around the burst hole is initial vibration–sudden attenuation–late stability. Secondly, the gas pressure response law in different areas is that the gas pressure response rate decreases gradually with the increase of the distance from the outburst. Thirdly, the adsorbed gas contained in the broken coal near the outburst port is desorbed rapidly and expands to do work, and the temperature changes dramatically after outburst occurs. In contrast, with the increase of stress, the proportion of elastic potential in total coal and gas outburst energy increases, and the proportion of elastic potential is positively correlated with stress. The critical gas pressure under the energy condition of coal and gas outburst decreases with the increase of stress. It illustrates that the lower gas pressure can also meet the energy condition of coal and gas outburst under high stress.

Coal and gas outburst is a potentially fatal risk during the mining of gassy coal seams, which seriously threatens the safe mining of collieries. To understand the outburst mechanism and evolution rules, a new apparatus (LSTT) was developed to conduct simulated experiment. In the context of an outburst accident in Dingji coal mine, the authors launched an authentic outburst experiment to replay the outburst accident. Experimental apparatus, similar criterion, coal‐like materials and gas sources, and experimental design were discussed systematically in this paper. Experimentally, the study analyzed the geo‐stress has significant influence on the outburst evolution. At the driving face, the stress concentration possibly caused gas outburst, under the influence of mining‐induced stress. After the outburst occurred, the stress balance of the coal changed, resulting in the instability of the coal. Furthermore, the elastic energy, gas enthalpy, and gravitational potential energy were released rapidly. The experimental result stated that outburst coal has the sorting characteristics, in line with the field outburst law. The intensity prediction model has been built based on the energy model. Moreover, the factors that impact outburst intensity were analyzed. In the process of coal and gas outburst, the gas enthalpy of gas and the elastic potential of coal are the main energy sources. This study provides guidance for the development of the outburst mechanism and outburst mine management.

Damage can be identified using generalized flexibility matrix based methods, by using the first natural frequency and the corresponding mode shape. However, the first mode is not always appropriate to be used in damage detection. The contact interface of rod-fastened-rotor may be partially separated under bending moment which decreases the flexural stiffness of the rotor. The bending moment on the interface varies as rotating speed changes, so that the first- and second-modal parameters obtained are corresponding to different damage scenarios. In this paper, a structural damage detection method requiring single nonfirst mode is proposed. Firstly, the system is updated via restricting the first few mode shapes. The mass matrix, stiffness matrix, and modal parameters of the updated system are derived. Then, the generalized flexibility matrix of the updated system is obtained, and its changes and sensitivity to damage are derived. The changes and sensitivity are used to calculate the location and severity of damage. Finally, this method is tested through numerical means on a cantilever beam and a rod-fastened-rotor with different damage scenarios when only the second mode is available. The results indicate that the proposed method can effectively identify single, double, and multiple damage using single nonfirst mode.

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