PHYSICAL PREREQUISITES FOR GAS PERMEABILITY SIMULATION OF MINED ROCK MASS

Purpose. Justification of the gas collectors formation physical model on the basis of research of conformity of permeability of rock mass to the full diagram of rock sample deformation. Methodology consists in sequential analysis of the stages of the complete deformation diagram of the rock specimen under “hard” loading, comparing them with the stages of formation of the high stress zone in front of the lava bottom and statistical analysis of laboratory test results. Results. Based on the rock’s deformation properties analysis and their comparison with the rock sample full deformation diagram, the physical model of formation of gas reservoirs during the development of gas-saturated coal seam is substantiated. Within the solved problem framework, four stages of the complete deformation process are analyzed, namely: elastic, at the limit of strength, out-of-bounds stage and equivoluminal flow zone. The gas collector boundaries, which are the characteristic points of the rock sample deformation diagram in specified deformations mode (the limit of elastic strength and the limit of final strength) are determined. It is proved that the structural and textural features of the coal mass in connection with the course of gas-dynamic processes are manifested in the change in the pores and cracks volume contained in it, which together make the filtration space. Knowledge regarding the transfer of the permeability changes established regularities and free methane accumulation zones formation to the real rock mass, if the process of its forgery is considered as a consistent change of geomechanical states of rocks, is obtained. Scientific novelty lies in the first substantiated possibility of modeling the stress state before the longwall face by equivalent stages of the rock sample destruction in the given deformations mode. Gradual comparative analysis of the internal mechanism of rock samples deformation along the complete deformation diagram allowed establishing causal relationships between geomechanical and gas-dynamic processes in coal mass, and qualitatively characterizing general trends in permeability and volumetric expansion in changes of these samples. Practical value of the work lies in the justification of the principle of construction of a digital geomechanical model for the detection of man-made gas collectors in a mined coal mass.