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Gas Flow Characteristics and Optimization of Gas Drainage Borehole Layout in Protective Coal Seam Mining: A Case Study from the Shaqu Coal Mine, Shanxi Province, China

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Abstract

With increasing demands for coal resources, coal has been gradually mined in deep coal seams. Due to high gas content, pressure and in situ stress, deep coal seams show great risks of coal and gas outburst. Protective coal seam mining, as a safe and effective method for gas control, has been widely used in major coal-producing countries in the world. However, at present, the relevant problems, such as gas seepage characteristics and optimization of gas drainage borehole layout in protective coal seam mining have been rarely studied. Firstly, by combining with formulas for measuring and testing permeability of coal and rock mass in different stress regimes and failure modes in the laboratory, this study investigated stress–seepage coupling laws by using built-in language Fish of numerical simulation software FLAC3D. In addition, this research analyzed distribution characteristics of permeability in a protected coal seam in the process of protective coal seam mining. Secondly, the protected coal seam was divided into a zone with initial permeability, a zone with decreasing permeability, and permeability increasing zones 1 and 2 according to the changes of permeability. In these zones, permeability rises the most in the permeability increasing zone 2. Moreover, by taking Shaqu Coal Mine, Shanxi Province, China as an example, layout of gas drainage boreholes in the protected coal seam was optimized based on the above permeability-based zoning. Finally, numerical simulation and field application showed that gas drainage volume and concentration rise significantly after optimizing borehole layout. Therefore, when gas is drained through boreholes crossing coal seams during the protective coal seam mining in other coal mines, optimization of borehole layout in Shaqu Coal Mine has certain reference values.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their valuable advices. This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52074120 and 52074041), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (3142019005 and 3142017107) and Key Project of the National Thirteen-Five Year Research Program of China (2016ZX05067005-001), which are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Safety Engineering, North China Institute of Science and Technology, Beijing, 101601, China

    Zhiheng Cheng, Hui Pan, Liang Chen, Jialin Cao, Kun Zhang & Yongguo Cui

  2. State Key Laboratory of Coal Mine Disaster Dynamics and Control, College of Resources and Environment Science, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China

    Quanle Zou

  3. NCIST Zhongan Technology (Beijing) Co., LTD, Beijing, 101601, China

    Zhiheng Cheng & Liang Chen

  4. School of Energy Science and Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, 454000, Henan, China

    Zhenhua Li

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  1. Zhiheng Cheng
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  2. Hui Pan
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  3. Quanle Zou
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  5. Liang Chen
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Correspondence to Quanle Zou or Zhenhua Li.

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Cheng, Z., Pan, H., Zou, Q. et al. Gas Flow Characteristics and Optimization of Gas Drainage Borehole Layout in Protective Coal Seam Mining: A Case Study from the Shaqu Coal Mine, Shanxi Province, China. Nat Resour Res 30, 1481–1493 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11053-020-09775-4

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