scholarly journals Longwall top coal caving design for thick coal seam in very poor strength surrounding strata

Author(s):  
H. Jangara ◽  
C. Atilla Ozturk

AbstractAlpu lignite field is an important coal deposit with nearly 2 billion tons of coal resources located in the middle of Turkey. The mine deposit consists of three main seams. The thickness of two of them vary from 4 to 30 m. The surrounding rock mass is very poor in terms of strength. The high clay content and weak rock mass make mechanized mining difficult. In this research, applicability of the longwall top coal caving method was investigated. The very weak strength behavior of the coal and the surrounding strata increases the importance of research in the mine site in terms of ground control. The aim is to design the mechanized longwall mine based on ground control principles. First of all, classification of the roof, coal, inter-burden, and floor strata were classified based on geotechnical aspects. Then, cavability index, shield, and floor bearing capacity were investigated. Different methods were applied to understand the limitations of a mechanized system that is very critical due to the very low strength strata. According to the main results, roof strata was classified as immediately caving while mining height was calculated as 5–6 m. Finally, the relations among geotechnical characterizations of roof and floor strata, cutting and caving heights, and required shield capacity were presented based on analytical and numerical applications. The proposed approach can be used as a ground control method for the applicability as well as the limitations of mechanized longwall mining design in weak strata conditions.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hossein Jangara ◽  
C. Atilla Ozturk

Abstract Alpu lignite field is an important coal deposit with nearly 2 billion tons of coal resources located in the middle of Turkey. The mine deposit consists of three main seams. The thickness of two of them vary from 4 m to 30 m. The surrounding rock mass is very poor in terms of strength. The high clay content and weak rock mass make mechanized mining difficult. In this research, applicability of the longwall top coal caving method was investigated. The very weak strength behavior of the coal and the surrounding strata increases the importance of research in the mine site in terms of ground control. The aim is to design the mechanized longwall mine based on ground control principles. First of all, classification of the roof, coal, inter-burden, and floor strata were classified based on geotechnical aspects. Then, cavability index, shield, and floor bearing capacity were investigated. Different methods were applied to understand the limitations of a mechanized system that is very critical due to the very low strength strata. According to the main results, roof strata was classified as immediately caving while mining height was calculated as 5 m to 6 m. Finally, the relations among geotechnical characterizations of roof and floor strata, cutting and caving heights, and required shield capacity were presented based on analytical and numerical applications. The proposed approach can be used as a ground control method for the applicability as well as the limitations of mechanized longwall mining design in weak strata conditions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hossein Jangara ◽  
C. Atilla Ozturk

Abstract Alpu lignite field is an important coal deposit with nearly 2 billion tons of coal resources located in the middle of Turkey. The mine deposit consists of three main seams. The thickness of two of them vary from 4 m to 30 m. The surrounding rock mass is very poor in terms of strength. The high clay content and weak rock mass make mechanized mining difficult. In this research, applicability of the longwall top coal caving method was investigated. The very weak strength behavior of the coal and the surrounding strata increases the importance of research in the mine site in terms of ground control. The aim is to design the mechanized longwall mine based on ground control principles. First of all, classification of the roof, coal, inter-burden, and floor strata were classified based on geotechnical aspects. Then, cavability index, shield, and floor bearing capacity were investigated. Different methods were applied to understand the limitations of a mechanized system that is very critical due to the very low strength strata. According to the main results, roof strata was classified as immediately caving while mining height was calculated as 5 m to 6 m. Finally, the relations among geotechnical characterizations of roof and floor strata, cutting and caving heights, and required shield capacity were presented based on analytical and numerical applications. The proposed approach can be used as a ground control method for the applicability as well as the limitations of mechanized longwall mining design in weak strata conditions.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 5534
Author(s):  
Qingying Cheng ◽  
Bingxiang Huang ◽  
Luying Shao ◽  
Xinglong Zhao ◽  
Shuliang Chen ◽  
...  

The weakening of hard coal–rock mass is the core common problem that is involved in the top coal weakening in hard and thick coal seams, the hard roof control during the initial mining stage in the longwall mining face, and the hanging roof control in the gob of non-coal mine. Based on the characteristics of pulse hydraulic fracturing and constant pumping rate hydraulic fracturing, a weakening method for hard coal–rock mass by combining pre-pulse and constant pumping rate hydraulic fracturing is proposed. A complete set of equipment for the combined pulse and constant pumping rate hydraulic fracturing construction in the underground coal mine is developed. The pulse and constant pumping rate hydraulic fracturing technology and equipment were applied in the top coal weakening of the shallow buried thick coal seam. Compared with no weakening measures for top coal, the average block size of the top coal caving was reduced by 42% after top coal hydraulic fracturing. The recovery rate of the top coal caving mining face reached 85%, and it increased by 18% after hydraulic fracturing.


Author(s):  
Rui Wu ◽  
Penghui Zhang ◽  
Pinnaduwa H. S. W. Kulatilake ◽  
Hao Luo ◽  
Qingyuan He

AbstractAt present, non-pillar entry protection in longwall mining is mainly achieved through either the gob-side entry retaining (GER) procedure or the gob-side entry driving (GED) procedure. The GER procedure leads to difficulties in maintaining the roadway in mining both the previous and current panels. A narrow coal pillar about 5–7 m must be left in the GED procedure; therefore, it causes permanent loss of some coal. The gob-side pre-backfill driving (GPD) procedure effectively removes the wasting of coal resources that exists in the GED procedure and finds an alternative way to handle the roadway maintenance problem that exists in the GER procedure. The FLAC3D software was used to numerically investigate the stress and deformation distributions and failure of the rock mass surrounding the previous and current panel roadways during each stage of the GPD procedure which requires "twice excavation and mining". The results show that the stress distribution is slightly asymmetric around the previous panel roadway after the “primary excavation”. The stronger and stiffer backfill compared to the coal turned out to be the main bearing body of the previous panel roadway during the "primary mining". The highest vertical stresses of 32.6 and 23.1 MPa, compared to the in-situ stress of 10.5 MPa, appeared in the backfill wall and coal seam, respectively. After the "primary mining", the peak vertical stress under the coal seam at the floor level was slightly higher (18.1 MPa) than that under the backfill (17.8 MPa). After the "secondary excavation", the peak vertical stress under the coal seam at the floor level was slightly lower (18.7 MPa) than that under the backfill (19.8 MPa); the maximum floor heave and maximum roof sag of the current panel roadway were 252.9 and 322.1 mm, respectively. During the "secondary mining", the stress distribution in the rock mass surrounding the current panel roadway was mainly affected by the superposition of the front abutment pressure from the current panel and the side abutment pressure from the previous panel. The floor heave of the current panel roadway reached a maximum of 321.8 mm at 5 m ahead of the working face; the roof sag increased to 828.4 mm at the working face. The peak abutment pressure appeared alternately in the backfill and the coal seam during the whole procedure of "twice excavation and mining" of the GPD procedure. The backfill provided strong bearing capacity during all stages of the GPD procedure and exhibited reliable support for the roadway. The results provide scientific insight for engineering practice of the GPD procedure.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Satar Mahdevari ◽  
Mohammad Hayati

AbstractDesigning a suitable support system is of great importance in longwall mining to ensure the safe and stable working conditions over the entire life of the mine. In high-speed mechanized longwall mining, the most vulnerable zones to failure are roof strata in the vicinity of the tailgate roadway and T-junctions. Severe roof displacements are occurred in the tailgate roadway due to the high-stress concentrations around the exposed roof span. In this respect, Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was utilized to optimize tailgate support systems in the Tabas longwall coal mine, northeast of Iran. The nine geomechanical parameters were obtained through the field and laboratory studies including density, uniaxial compressive strength, angle of internal friction, cohesion, shear strength, tensile strength, Young’s modulus, slake durability index, and rock mass rating. A design of experiment was developed through considering a Central Composite Design (CCD) on the independent variables. The 149 experiments are resulted based on the output of CCD, and were introduced to a software package of finite difference numerical method to calculate the maximum roof displacements (dmax) in each experiment as the response of design. Therefore, the geomechanical variables are merged and consolidated into a modified quadratic equation for prediction of the dmax. The proposed model was executed in four approaches of linear, two-factor interaction, quadratic, and cubic. The best squared correlation coefficient was obtained as 0.96. The prediction capability of the model was examined by testing on some unseen real data that were monitored at the mine. The proposed model appears to give a high goodness of fit with the accuracy of 0.90. These results indicate the accuracy and reliability of the developed model, which may be considered as a reliable tool for optimizing or redesigning the support systems in longwall tailgates. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to identify the key variables affecting the dmax, and to recognize their pairwise interaction effects. The key parameters influencing the dmax are respectively found to be slake durability index, Young’s modulus, uniaxial compressive strength, and rock mass rating.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Shengrong Xie ◽  
Xiaoyu Wu ◽  
Dongdong Chen ◽  
Yaohui Sun ◽  
Junchao Zeng ◽  
...  

Automatic roadways on gob-side entry retaining with no-pillars are used for longwall mining technology. The mining technology with no-pillars can recover coal pillar resources and reduce the amount and cost of roadway excavations. Automatic roadway technology for cutting roofs by combined support on gob-side entry retaining with no-pillars is adopted for the condition of thick immediate roof and medium-thick coal seam mining, cutting off the immediate roof and the main roof on the gob by combined support. The fractured roof forms gangue blocks to fill the gob and loads the overlying strata. The gangue control system is placed on the roadside, which controls the caving gangue to form a gangue rib. In this paper, the viewpoints and key technologies (the roof-cutting technology, the reinforcement and support technology, the gangue rib control technology, and the auxiliary support technology) of automatic roadway technology for cutting roofs by combined support on the gob-side entry retaining with no-pillars are introduced. Furthermore, the formation and control process are explained. The numerical simulation is used to simulate and analyze the roof hanging and the roof cutting structures. In addition, a field engineering test is performed. The field test shows that automatic roadway technology for cutting roofs by combined support on gob-side entry retaining with no-pillars is feasible. This process uses construction techniques and technologies to meet on-site production needs. The combined support has high resistance strength and is shrinkable. In engineering applications, the combined support has a low damage rate. The deformation of the automatic roadway with gob-side entry retaining is small, and the control effect is significant.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuang Liu ◽  
Huamin Li

Abstract In the process of longwall top coal caving, the selection of the top coal caving interval along the advancing direction of the working face has an important effect on the top coal recovery. To explore a realistic top coal caving interval of the longwall top coal caving working face, longwall top coal caving panel 8202 in the Tongxin Coal Mine is used as an example, and 30 numerical simulation models are established by using Continuum-based Distinct Element Method (CDEM) simulation software to study the top coal recovery with 4.0 m, 8.0 m, 12.0 m, 16.0 m, 20.0 m and 24.0 m top coal thicknesses and 0.8 m, 1.0 m, 1.2 m, 1.6 m and 2.4 m top coal caving intervals. The results show that with an increase in the top coal caving interval, the single top coal caving amount increases. The top coal recovery is the highest with a 0.8 m top coal caving interval when the thickness of the top coal is less than 4.0 m, and it is the highest with a 1.2 m top coal caving interval when the coal seam thickness is greater than 4.0 m. These results provide a reference for the selection of a realistic top coal caving interval in thick coal seam caving mining.


2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongfeng Yun ◽  
Zhu Liu ◽  
Wendong Cheng ◽  
Zhendong Fan ◽  
Dongfang Wang ◽  
...  

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