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Permeability Characteristics of Broken Coal and Rock Under Cyclic Loading and Unloading

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Abstract

During longwall mining, the permeability evaluation in a caving zone is one of the most challenging risks for mine operators because it controls the behavior of gas flow and it significantly influences gob gas extraction and spontaneous combustion. Based on the stress environment of repeated mining in the Huainan coal mine, this study discusses the results of a laboratory experiment on broken coal and rock in a caving zone of a gob. The stress–permeability relationship of broken coal, rock, and combination of coal and rock samples with various particle sizes under cyclic loading and unloading was experimentally studied. The laboratory test results imply that permeability stress sensitivity and permeability loss of the first loading and unloading were significantly greater than the succeeding cyclic loading and unloading. Re-crushing and re-arrangement were the main two factors that lead to a drastic drop in caving zone porosity causing permeability reduction in the first loading and unloading process. The initial permeability and initial pore compressibility increased logarithmically when particle size increased, while the changing rate of pore compressibility decreased exponentially. The stress sensitivity of the broken coal samples’ permeability increased when particle size increased. Based on the laboratory experiments, the stress–permeability fitting model considering particle size of broken coal and rock in a caving zone during repeated mining was proposed in this study.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support for this work was supported by Beijing Natural Science Foundation (8184082), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51704274), the Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program by CAST (2017QNRC001), and the Yue Qi Distinguished Scholar Project, China University of Mining & Technology, Beijing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Key Laboratory for Precise Mining of Intergrown Energy and Resources, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Beijing, 100083, China

    Cun Zhang

  2. School of Resource and Safety Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Beijing, 100083, China

    Cun Zhang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Safe Mining, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, 100083, China

    Cun Zhang

  4. School of Mines, Key Laboratory of Deep Coal Resource Ministry of Education of China, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, Jiangsu, China

    Lei Zhang

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Correspondence to Cun Zhang.

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Zhang, C., Zhang, L. Permeability Characteristics of Broken Coal and Rock Under Cyclic Loading and Unloading. Nat Resour Res 28, 1055–1069 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11053-018-9436-x

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