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Experimental Investigation on the Permeability Evolution of Compacted Broken Coal

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Abstract

Given the importance of airflow seepage properties to coal self-oxidation in gob, this paper develops a method and self-designed apparatus to assess seepage properties of compacted broken coal. This study mainly focuses on the strain, porosity and permeability evolution under the different conditions of particle size, vertical stress and temperature. The studied results show: (1) The strain, porosity and permeability were enlarged when the particle size increased under the same loading stress. The porosity and permeability reduced when the vertical stress increased. (2) The non-Darcy coefficient was negative in all tests, but the absolute value of the non-Darcy coefficient generally increased when the vertical stress increased. (3) The experiment results indicated that the larger the particle was, the easier to be compacted. The larger the grain diameter was, the lower the porosity and permeability were, which shown that the void volume in broken coal with larger grain diameters could be easily compacted. (4) The permeability was reduced when the temperature increased, which indicated the permeability of the compacted broken coal decreased during low-temperature oxidation in gob. (5) By the effects of stress and the particle size diameter on the porosity and permeability, the vertical stress recovery and generally increase are advantageous to reduce the porosity and permeability in gob. It is favorable to reduce the porosity and permeability and prevent coal self-heating by reducing the degree of fragmentation and percentage of small particles or consolidate the small particles.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1361205, 51404090, 51574111), The Scientific Research Foundation of State Key Lab. of Coal Mine Disaster Dynamics and Control (Nos. 2011DA105287-ZD201401).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Coal Mine Disaster Dynamics and Control, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, People’s Republic of China

    Tingxiang Chu, Minggao Yu & Deyi Jiang

  2. School of Safety Science and Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, 454003, People’s Republic of China

    Tingxiang Chu

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  1. Tingxiang Chu
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  2. Minggao Yu
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  3. Deyi Jiang
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Correspondence to Tingxiang Chu.

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Chu, T., Yu, M. & Jiang, D. Experimental Investigation on the Permeability Evolution of Compacted Broken Coal. Transp Porous Med 116, 847–868 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-016-0803-y

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