Study on Gas Control Methods Optimization for Mining Safety

Effective gas control is of significance for safe efficient coal mining in Haizi Coal Mine and other mines with similar geological conditions. This study concentrates on gas control theories and techniques in multiple coal seams of Haizi Coal Mine (No. 7, No. 8, No. 9, and No. 10 coal seam from top to bottom). To minimize risk of high gas emission and outburst hazard, No. 10 seam was mined first as a protective seam prior to the mining of its overlying outburst-prone No. 7, No. 8, and No. 9 seam. Four gas drainage measures were determined for gas control, including cross-measure boreholes into overlying coal seams, surface goaf wells, roof boreholes, and roof gas drainage roadway. These gas control measures, if implemented through entire coal seam extraction, would be possibly uneconomic. An investigation was undertaken to analyze effects of those four measures on gas emission, methane concentration, and gas drainage quantity in No. 2 1024 mining panel of No. 10 seam. Results indicate that the highly expensive gas drainage measure of a roof roadway has poor drainage performance and could be effectively replaced by roof boreholes. When adopting the optimized combination of gas drainage measures, drainage efficiency of No. 7 seam, No. 8 seam, and No. 9 seam could reach 58.64% and decrease gas pressure to be below 0.74 MPa. Outcomes of this study could provide beneficial guidance not only for gas drainage design optimization in Haizi Coal Mine but also for other multiple-seam mines with similar mining and geological conditions, for increasing gas drainage efficiency and guaranteeing mining safety.

Gas Distribution Mechanism in Goaf during Combined Drainage of Upper Corner Buried Pipeline and Intubation for Thick Coal Seams

The prevention of gas overrun in the panel is one of the key issues on green mining. In this paper, a physical goaf model was established based on the geological production conditions of a coal seam in a coal mine in Henan Province, and the combined drainage technology by burying and spilling pipeline in the upper corner was proposed. The Fluent software was used to simulate the changes of gas mass fraction and flow field distribution when the gas is extracted from the goaf without the gas pipeline, with a single buried pipeline, and with the combination of buried and spilled pipelines. Analysis and simulation showed that in the absence of drainage pipelines, the gas concentrations in both the return airway and the upper corner are up to 1.2%, which failed to meet the gas prevention and control standard on the mine. In the case of gas drainage with a single buried pipeline, the average gas concentration in the return airway was 0.7%, and only the gas concentration in the upper corner was up to 1.1%, which failed to meet the gas control standards on the mine’s panel. However, the maximum gas concentration in the combined drainage was reduced from 1.1% to 0.6%, which indicates that the technology can greatly reduce gas concentration, but there is still a gap from the mine’s gas control standard. Therefore, the impacts of the lengths of pipelines buried in different goafs on the gas drainage effect in the goaf were studied, and it was concluded that the reasonable length of pipelines buried in the goaf under the geological conditions was 20 m. This technology not only solves the problem of gas overrun in the panel but also realizes the utilization of gas resources in the goaf. The research results are of guiding significance for pipeline laying and the drainage technology in the upper corners on the U-shaped ventilation panel.

Computational fluid dynamics optimization of gas drainage technology in gas-mining areas

Coal mining results in strata movement and surrounding rock failure. Eventually, manual mining space will be occupied by the destructed coal rock, making it difficult to conduct field tests of the coal seam to explore gas seepage and transport patterns. Therefore, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical computation is an important tool for such studies. From the aspect of gas pre-drainage, for layer-through boreholes in the floor roadway of the 8,406 working face in Yangquan Mine 5 in China, reasonable layout parameters were obtained by CFD optimization. For effectively controlling the scope of boreholes along coal seam 9 in the Kaiyuan Mine, CFD computation was performed. The results revealed that the horizontal spacing between boreholes should be ≤2 m when a tri-quincuncial borehole layout is used. Optimization of the surface well position layout for the fault structure zone in the Xinjing Mine of the Yangquan mining area indicated that the horizontal distance between the surface well and the fault plane should be <150 m. From the aspect of gas drainage with mining-induced pressure relief, CFD computation was performed for pressure-relieved gas transport in the K8205 working face of Yangquan Mine 3. The results showed that forced roof caving should be used before the overhang length of hard roof reaches 25 m in the K8205 working face to avoid gas overrun. From the aspect of gas drainage from the abandoned gob, surface well control scopes at different surface well positions were computed, and an O-ring fissure zone is proposed as a reasonable scope for the surface well layout. CFD computation has been widely applied to coal and gas co-extraction in the Yangquan mining area and has played a significant role in guiding related gas drainage engineering practice.

Influence of Long Boreholes Layout and Drilling Length on Gas Drainage Based on Multifield Coupling Model of Gas-Bearing Coal

Gas drainage through long seam boreholes is an effective method to prevent gas disasters in coal mines. In this paper, a multifield coupling model of gas migration in gas-bearing coal was first established. Then, a quantitative characterization method of gas drainage effect was put forward. Finally, the extraction effect of long boreholes was obtained under different layouts and drilling lengths. The research results show that, under the arrangement of long boreholes along the seam, the gas pressure around the borehole decreases significantly with the extraction time. There is no extraction blank in the middle of the working face. However, it is easy to cause uneven gas drainage in the combined arrangement of the long boreholes along the seam and the penetrating boreholes. Furthermore, it is found that the drainage volume of the long boreholes along the seam is similar to that of the joint layout under the same drainage time. As the length of the borehole increases, the influencing range of gas drainage increases. When the borehole lengths are 150 m and 240 m, the drainage volumes are about 1.31 and 2.50 times that of the 90 m boreholes, respectively. The research achievements could provide a specific reference for the layout of long boreholes along the bedding and the determination of reasonable parameters for gas drainage on site.

Gas Migration Patterns with Different Borehole Sizes in Underground Coal Seams: Numerical Simulations and Field Observations

Gas flow in a coal seam is a complex process due to the complicated coal structure and the sorption characteristics of coal to adsorbable gas (such as carbon dioxide and methane). It is essential to understand the gas migration patterns for different fields of engineering, such as CBM exploitation, underground coal mine gas drainage, and CO2 geo-sequestration. Many factors influence gas migration patterns. From the surface production wells, the in-seam patterns of gas content cannot be quantified, and it is difficult to predict the total gas production time. In order to understand the gas flow patterns during gas recovery and the gas content variations with respect to production time, a solid-fluid coupled gas migration model is proposed to illustrate the gas flow in a coal seam. Field data was collected and simulation parameters were obtained. Based on this model, different scenarios with different borehole sizes were simulated for both directional boreholes and normal parallel boreholes in coal seams. Specifically, the borehole sizes for the directional boreholes were 10 m, 15 m, and 20 m. The borehole sizes for the normal parallel boreholes were 2 m, 4 m, and 6 m. Under different gas drainage leading times, the total gas recovery and residual gas contents were quantified. In Longwall Panel 909 of the Wuhushan coal mine, one gas drainage borehole and five 4 m monitoring boreholes were drilled. After six months of monitoring, the residual gas content was obtained and compared with the simulation results. Of the total gas, 61.36% was drained out from the first 4 m borehole. In this field study, the effective drainage diameter of the drainage borehole was less than 8 m after six months of drainage. The gas drainage performance was tightly affected by the borehole size and the gas drainage time. It was determined that the field observations were in line with the simulation results. The findings of this study can provide field data for similar conditions.

Improvement of Gas Drainage Efficiency via Optimization of Sealing Depth of Cross-Measure Boreholes

The sealing depth of a gas-drainage borehole is critically important as it directly affects the efficiency of the whole drainage system. In order to determine the shortest reasonable sealing depth, in this paper, a theoretical drainage model using different sealing depths was proposed. Based on theoretical analysis presented, two parts of the fractures system surrounding the drainage borehole were proposed, i.e. the fractures induced by roadway excavation and the fractures induced by borehole drilling. A series of geological in-situ tests and simulations research were conducted to determine the stress and fracture distributions in the surrounding rock of the borehole. The depths of crushing zones, plastic zones and stress concentration zones were determined as 5 m, 2 m and 12 m, respectively. Meanwhile, stress simulation shows that the depth of the stress concentration zone was 12 m from the roadway wall and the stress peak was located at the depth of 8 m, which can be verified by the results of drilling penetration velocity analysis. To determine the optimum sealing depth, gas drainage holes with different sealing depths were drilled in the field. The field results revealed that the crushing zones were the main area for air leakage, and the stress concentration induced by roadway excavation assisted in the reduction of air leakage. Therefore, the optimized sealing depth should both cover the plastic zone and the stress concentration zone. The research achievements can provide a quantitative method for the determination of optimum sealing depth in cross-measure drainage boreholes.