Characteristics of Airflow Migration in Goafs under the Roof-Cutting and Pressure-Releasing Mode and the Traditional Longwall Mining Mode

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.

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Finite-difference based response surface methodology to optimize tailgate support systems in longwall coal mining

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-82104-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Satar Mahdevari ◽

Mohammad Hayati

Keyword(s):

Compressive Strength ◽

Response Surface Methodology ◽

Rock Mass ◽

Finite Difference ◽

Longwall Mining ◽

Support Systems ◽

Rock Mass Rating ◽

Slake Durability Index ◽

Proposed Model ◽

Durability Index

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.

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Justification of Longwall Mining Technology for the Development of Kieselguhr Deposit in Sig Mine, Algeria

IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science ◽

10.1088/1755-1315/609/1/012002 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 609 ◽

pp. 012002

Author(s):

Abdessattar Lamamra ◽

Dimitriy L. Neguritsa ◽

Vitaly A. Eremenko

Keyword(s):

Longwall Mining ◽

Mining Technology

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A Practical Nonprobabilistic Reliability Assessment Method on Key Strata Shear Failure in Longwall Mining

Mathematical Problems in Engineering ◽

10.1155/2015/893019 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 2015 ◽

pp. 1-8 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Hebing Luan ◽

Jiachen Wang ◽

Guowei Ma ◽

Ke Zhang

Keyword(s):

Structural Reliability ◽

Shear Failure ◽

Longwall Mining ◽

Reliability Assessment ◽

Friction Angle ◽

Assessment Method ◽

Mechanical Tests ◽

Potential Hazard ◽

Support Design ◽

Key Strata

Roof cutting has long been a potential hazard factor in longwall panels in some diggings in China. Meanwhile, the key strata structural reliability, which provides an assessment on the stability of overlying roof strata, may be a significant reference for support design in underground coal mines. This paper aims to investigate a practical nonprobabilistic reliability assessment method on key strata. The mechanical tests and the hollow inclusion triaxial strain tests were conducted to measure relevant mechanical parameters and in situ stress. Furthermore, against the typical failure features in Datong Diggings, China, a shear failure mechanical model of key strata is proposed. Then, an allowable-safety-factor based nonprobabilistic stability probability assessment method is given. The sensitivity of geometrical dimensions and uncertainty levels of friction angle and cohesion are further studied. It is found that thickness and span of key strata have more dominative effect on key strata’s stability compared with the other factor and the increase of uncertainty levels results in decrease of stability probability.

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