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Analytical study to estimate rib spalling extent and support requirements in thick seam mining

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Abstract

In order to better understand the mechanism behind the poor stability of support and surrounding rocks at mechanized working faces with increased mining height (MWMH), a conceptual model of the support and rocks surrounding the MWMH, under different structural conditions of the main roof, is established in this study. On the basis of the mechanical model, the interaction among the coal wall, support and roof in MWMH is studied. The analytical analysis reveals that the coal wall and support interact more significantly in the MWMH than conventional approaches (e.g., conventional longwall mining). With the increase in the depth of rib spalling in coal wall, the support strength, needed to control the roof, increases linearly. While as the support strength increases, the depth of rib spalling in coal wall showed a hyperbolic-like decrease. Based on these results, the expression, which describes the relationship of the interaction between the rib spalling in coal wall and support strength in the MWMH, is proposed. Rib spalling is then controlled in real working face in a soft, thick coal seam. The field experiment demonstrates that the advanced long-hole hydrostatic pre-injection can control rib spalling in coal wall and guarantee the stability of support and surrounding rock, which enables a high-efficiency mining of the MWMH.

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Funding

This work was supported and financed by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51174192, 51604214, 51604212) and the Shaanxi Province Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 2017JM5115).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Energy Engineering, Key Laboratory of Western Mine Exploitation and Hazard Prevention with Ministry of Education, Safety Science and Engineering Post-Doctoral Research Station, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an, 710054, Shaanxi, China

    Wei-bin Guo

  2. School of Mines, Key Laboratory of Deep Coal Resource Mining, Ministry of Education of China, State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Mine Safety, China University of Mining & Technology, Xuzhou, 221008, Jiangsu, China

    Chang-you Liu

  3. School of Energy Engineering, Key Laboratory of Western Mine Exploitation and Hazard Prevention with Ministry of Education, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an, 710054, Shaanxi, China

    Guo-wei Dong & Wen-yu Lv

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  1. Wei-bin Guo
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  2. Chang-you Liu
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  3. Guo-wei Dong
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  4. Wen-yu Lv
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Correspondence to Wei-bin Guo.

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Editorial handling: M. Karakus

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Guo, Wb., Liu, Cy., Dong, Gw. et al. Analytical study to estimate rib spalling extent and support requirements in thick seam mining. Arab J Geosci 12, 276 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-019-4443-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-019-4443-8

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