Surrounding Rock Failure Mechanism and Control Technology of Gob-Side Entry with Triangle Coal Pillar at Island Longwall Panel in 15 m Extra-Thick Coal Seams

Taking the return air roadway of Tashan 8204 isolated island working face as the background, the evolution law of the stress field in the surrounding rock of the widened coal pillar area roadway during the mining period of the isolated island working face is obtained through numerical simulation. The hazardous area of strong mine pressure under different coal pillar widths is determined. Through simulation, it is known that when the width of the coal pillar is less than 20 m, there is large bearing capacity on the coal side of the roadway entity. The force on the side of the coal pillar is relatively small. When the width of the coal pillar ranges from 25 m to 45 m, the vertical stress on the roadway and surrounding areas is relatively high. Pressure relief measures need to be taken during mining to reduce surrounding rock stress. When the width of the coal pillar is greater than 45 m, the peak stress of the coal pillar is located in the deep part of the surrounding rock, but it still has a certain impact on the roadway. It is necessary to take pressure relief measures to transfer the stress to a deeper depth to ensure the stability of the triangular coal pillar during the safe mining period of the working face. This provides guidance for ensuring the stability of the triangular coal pillar during the safe mining period of the working face.

Non-complete relief method for measuring surface stresses in surrounding rocks

The measurement of surface stresses in surrounding rocks with the use of a relief method of annular hole-drilling was studied by numerical analysis. The stress relief process by hole-drilling was then simulated with the use of finite element method. The influences of the borehole diameter(d), the initial stresses and the ratio of the initial principle stresses on the variations of the remained stress and the released stress in function of the relief depth(h) were discussed. The relation between the non-dimensional ratio of the released principle strains and that of the initial principle stresses, and the effect of the elastic modulus and the Poisson ratio of the rock mass on the stress relief curves were studied. The results show that the stress relief behavior formulated with the non-dimensional ratio of the released stress and the ratio of h/d is only sensitive to the ratio of the initial principle stresses and the Poisson ratio. The stresses are completely released when h equals 1.6d, and the tensile stresses take place on the bore core surface in the relief measurement process. Finally, a non-complete relief method of annular hole-drilling for measuring surface stress in surrounding rocks is proposed and the procedure is presented.

Ground stress and its impact on the stability of the surrounding rock in the Lüliang mining area

Ground stress is the fundamental cause of deformation and failure during underground structural engineering. Field stress measurements in the main coal bed in the Lueliang mining area were made by the bore hole, stress relief method. From these data the ground stress distribution of the mining area was obtained. The relationship between the horizontal principal stress and the deformation and failure of a roadway is discussed with an engineering example. The results indicate that horizontal stress dominates in the shallow crust in the Ltiliang mining area. Roadways at different angles to the maximum principal stress have different levels of stress concentration. This leads to a significant difference in stability of the corresponding roadways. These research results provide an important criterion for determining roadway position and direction, stope layout, and roadway support design.