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Effect of damage evolution of coal on permeability variation and analysis of gas outburst hazard with coal mining

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Abstract

Coal and gas outburst disasters in coal seams are becoming more serious as coal mines extend deeper underground in China. Damage evolution has affected gas flow in coal seam greatly, which also controls gas permeation and gas extraction results, and finally, it has tremendous influence on prevention and control of gas disaster accidents. In this paper, the cracking process of coal under compressive stress condition and the permeability variation during the whole process is experimentally studied with the aid of 3D acoustic emission monitoring system. The experimental results suggest that the coal failure and degradation of mechanical properties are essentially related to the propagation and coalescence of induced cracks. Using a damage tensor defined by the direction-dependent crack density, the damage evolution during the whole loading process is studied. It is revealed that the damage evolution is mainly initiated with the appearance of microcracks and accelerated in the post-peak region. During the post-peak region, a similar increase tendency of damage and permeability is noticed, and therefore, a post-peak permeability model is proposed considering the influence of damage evolution on the permeability variation in the post-peak region. Finally, we analyze the gas outburst hazard with coal mining. There exists a transition zone around the vertical stress concentration, and energetic failure may result in this transition zone.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 2011CB201205) and the Jiangsu Creative and Innovation fund for 2014 team projects.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Geomechanics and Deep Underground Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221008, China

    Yi Xue & Feng Gao

  2. School of Mechanics and Civil Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221008, China

    Yi Xue & Feng Gao

  3. College of Sciences, Shandong University of Sciences and Technology, Qingdao, 266510, China

    Xingguang Liu

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  1. Yi Xue
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  2. Feng Gao
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  3. Xingguang Liu
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Correspondence to Feng Gao.

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Xue, Y., Gao, F. & Liu, X. Effect of damage evolution of coal on permeability variation and analysis of gas outburst hazard with coal mining. Nat Hazards 79, 999–1013 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-015-1888-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-015-1888-2

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