The roof falling accident is a serious threat to the lives of miners in deep coal mining, especially when the coal mine is more than 1000 meters deep. In regard to the 5306 coalface in the Tangkou coal mine, Shandong, China, the depth of coal seam is 992.8 m and the stress concentration coefficient of the roadway surrounding rock is 3.33. This leads to a serious deformation of the roadway roof, thereby producing a high risk of the roof falling disaster. In this pursuit, based on the mechanical analysis of roadway roof subjected to a high abutment pressure, the mathematical expressions of the setting load and movable column length of supports were introduced. Furthermore, the stability control mechanism of the roadway roof was analyzed and the optimized support parameters of supports are provided. The results showed that the longtime effective support of the roadway roof required the strength and deformation coupling of supports and anchored surrounding rock. The support length of the belt roadway should be at least 57.7 m, with 0-30 m away from the coalface supported by hydraulic supports and 32-57.7 m supported by single props. In addition, the maximum setting load and movable column length of hydraulic supports were 21.67 MPa and 280.3 mm and 12.44 MPa and 177.1 mm for single props, respectively. By applying the optimized support parameters of supports to the belt roadway of the 5306 coalface, the effective control of the roadway roof and the disaster control of roof falling were realized.
The permeability evolution law of saturated rock under cyclic loading–unloading after shear yield is an important basis for revealing the water resistance performance and water inrush risk of overlying rock under multiple mining conditions. In this paper, the influence of the confining pressure, the cyclic loading–unloading times (CLT), and the volumetric strain on the post-peak permeability of saturated sandstone was studied by carrying out a post-peak permeability experiment. Based on SEM images and an improved simulated annealing algorithm, the 3D internal structure characteristics of sandstone samples before and after the experiment were reconstructed. The influences of the confining pressure on pore diameter, effective porosity, connectivity, seepage path length, and tortuosity of the sandstone before and after the experiment are discussed. Research results indicated that (1) In the post-peak cyclic loading–unloading stage, the volumetric strain is negatively correlated with permeability. At the unloading and initial loading stage, the volumetric strain showed a gradually decreasing trend as the specimen was slowly compressed. However, at the middle and final loading stages, the volumetric strain curve shifted to the left and showed a decreasing trend, resulting in an obvious increase in permeability. (2) The influence of CLT on k is closely related to the confining pressure level. When the confining pressure changed from 4 MPa to 12 MPa, the volumetric strain–average stress hysteretic curve shifted to the left in turn and the corresponding permeability gradually increased. When the confining pressure increased to 16 MPa and 20 MPa, the volumetric strain–average stress hysteretic curve shifted to the right in turn and the corresponding permeability showed a decreasing trend. No matter what the value of CLT, the magnitude of sandstone permeability gradually decreased and the decreasing trend became flat as the confining pressure increased, especially for σ3 = 16 MPa and 20 MPa. (3) No matter what value of the confining pressure, the hysteresis area of the first cycle was larger than that of last three cycles, indicating that the plastic deformation generated in the first cycle was larger than that generated in the last three cycles and the recovery rate of the permeability increased with an increase of CLT. (4) As the confining pressure gradually increased, the pore diameter, effective porosity, and connectivity all approximately showed a linear decrease due to more easily compacted pores and cracks under high confining pressure, lower connectivity, and permeability, while the length and tortuosity of the seepage path increased nonlinearly, roughly due to a more significant shear failure phenomenon where the seepage path became more tortuous, that is, the greater the tortuosity, the longer the seepage path. The research results can provide an important theoretical basis for water resistance performance and water inrush risk assessment of overlying aquifer under the influence of mining stress.
The effective discrimination of aquiclude mining stability is one of the important indexes for the feasibility judgement of water-conserved mining. Based on the mining-induced deformation characteristics of weakly cemented aquiclude and the water level change of weakly cemented aquifer in northwest China, a mechanical model of mining stability of weakly cemented aquiclude is established, and the mining instability criterion of weakly cemented aquiclude and its influencing factors are analyzed. The results show that the weakly cemented aquiclude has strong plastic deformation ability and mainly undergoes bending deformation during coal mining. Considering the mining-induced bending deformation of weakly cemented aquiclude and the groundwater pressure variation of the weakly cemented aquifer, the expressions of the deflection, stress components, and strain components of weakly cemented aquiclude are derived. Furthermore, the stress instability and strain instability criteria of the weakly cemented aquiclude are proposed. The influences of aquiclude thickness, elastic modulus, Poisson’s ratio, groundwater level, coalface length, and longwall panel length on the mining stability of weakly cemented aquiclude are analyzed. The research results are applied to the feasibility judgment of water-conserved mining in Xinjiang Ehuobulake Coal Mine, and the validity of the mining stability criterion of weakly cemented aquiclude is verified.
Existence of roof discontinuity surface is one of the extremely important factors causing the asymmetric fracture of roadway roof, especially for large-span soft rock roadway. In this paper, a crack density coefficient ( D ) is firstly defined by local thresholding-microcell segmentation method and used to analyze the evolution law of D with roof drilling depth ( d ) (the lower and upper of roof discontinuity are defined as regions I and II, respectively). Then, UDEC numerical simulation is used to investigate the asymmetry evolution law of roof total displacement, maximum principal stress, and crack density with stress release coefficient ( α ) considering the effect of discontinuity surface. Research results indicate that (1) the roof parameters (D) in regions I and II both show a negative logarithmic function decreasing trend with the increase of drilling depth. When d < 4.5 m, the parameter ( D ) in region II is about 1.5 times that in region I; when d ≥ 4.5 m, the parameter ( D ) in region I is almost zero, while the parameter ( D ) in region II maintains a slight decreasing trend. Roof failure presents asymmetric distribution characteristics along both sides of the discontinuous surface. (2) In the initial stage of open-off cutting excavation, the top left and right corners of roof as well as the bottom of discontinuous surface first occurred the tension-shear failure, and then as the α increases, the two side cracks gradually shift to the middle of roof in regions I and II with the appearance of stress concentration in two top corners. Meanwhile, the direction of maximum principal stress is transformed from “direction approximately parallel to the excavation surface” to “direction perpendicular to the discontinuous surface,” of which the location transfers to the deep anisotropically, forming an asymmetric stress loosening zones in the roof of regions I and II. The range of stress loosening zone in region II is significantly larger than that in region I. When the surrounding rock stress is completely released, the roof cracks in region I gradually transition from nonconnected to connected state and form a “quasi-right triangle” loosening zone. In addition, an “isosceles triangle-like” high crack density loosening zone with the roof middle as the axis is also formed in region II. The roadway roof presents a markedly asymmetric caving feature. (3) With the increase of discontinuity surface angles, the roof fracture range gradually decreases in region I and increases in region II as well as the structural features of roof pressure-bearing arch transform from “left-low right-high continuous asymmetric structure” (30°-60°) to “left-low right-high discontinuous asymmetric structure” (90°) to “unilateral partial pressure-bearing arch structure” (120°-150°). Research results can provide an extremely important reference for the optimization and design of support scheme with discontinuity-thick soft rock roof-large span roadways.
To unravel the permeability variation mechanism of weakly cemented rocks (WCR), the paper conducted triaxial permeability tests on weakly cemented sandstones (WCS) collected from the Jurassic formation in northwest China. The paper identified the correlation of WCS permeability versus porosity, cementation structure, and mineral composition, further developing a model to characterize the WCS stress–damage–permeability relationship. The research indicated that the WCS permeability was initially high due to the naturally high porosity, large pore diameter, and loose particle cementation, thus favoring a significant decline as pore convergence in the compaction stage. In the residual stage, kaolinite and montmorillonite minerals disintegrated into water and narrowed fractures, causing a slight permeability increase from the initial to the maximum and residual stages. The WCS matrix fracturing was phenomenologically accompanied by clay mineral disintegration. By assuming that the matrix can be compressed, jointed, and fractured, the paper defined a damage variable D and accordingly developed a stress–damage–permeability relationship model that incorporated matrix compression, jointing, and fracturing. The model can describe the WCS permeability regime regarding the high initial permeability and slight difference of the maximum and residual permeabilities versus the initial.
In northwest China, underground mining is frequently conducted in weakly cemented rock environments, including the aquiclude that protects the aquifer from dewatering. In this context, understanding the aquiclude responses to longwall mining is significant for assessing the reliability of water-conserved mining in the weakly cemented rock environment. Taking the Jurassic and Paleogene coal measure geology in Yili Mine in Xinjiang Province, China, as a case study, the paper conducted a laboratorial three-dimensional simulation by configuring a longwall operation and induced groundwater migration. The study analysed the aquiclude depressurisation and revealed the aquiclude stability in response to longwall mining. The results indicated that the aquiclude had a significant plastic strain and self-healing ability in the ground depressurisation condition. The aquiclude experienced tension and then compression, and, accordingly, fracture initiation, propagation, and convergence, during which the aquiclude had significant bending deformation. On the aquiclude horizon, tensile fracturing dominated above the set-up and longwall stop positions. The self-healing behaviour was correlated to the high content of clay minerals and disintegration proneness. The simulation results had a good agreement with field measurements, suggesting that the aquiclude had a satisfactory water-resisting ability and that the simulation results were practically reliable.
High rock stress and ground temperature pose great threats to the routine production of longwall top coal caving (LTCC) panels. In this risky condition, the width of the chain pillar is considered a factor adjustable for controlling coal burst and goaf ignition hazards. However, a contradiction, as suggested by longwall experience, is that narrowing the pillar helps coal burst prevention but negatively leads to higher self-ignition potentials, while widening the pillar restrains goaf ignition but increases the likelihood of coal burst. This paper conducted a case study on a longwall panel from Tangkou Mine, China. The paper first analysed stress, elastic strain energy, and goaf temperature variation with varying pillar widths, by which the coal burst risk index δr and goaf ignition risk index Qs were defined and correlated to pillar width D. Further, a pillar width determination method considering coal burst and goaf ignition dual-hazard management was developed by means of the operating point principle. By this method, a reasonable width range was defined by plotting both correlation curves δr=fD and Qs=gD on a chart, followed by optimal width determination according to the intersection of both curves and further verification via a field trial.
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