Underground pressure characteristics analysis in back-gully mining of shallow coal seam under a bedrock gully slope

We studied underground pressure and its mechanism during back-gully mining in a shallow coal seam under a bedrock gully slope,by means of physical simulation,numerical modeling and field monitoring.The results show that the intensity of underground pressure is related to its relative position at the coalface.The underground pressure is intensive and the support resistance reaches a maximum when the coalface is at the bottom of the gully,whereas the underground pressure is moderate and decreases gradually when the coalface passes the gully.The mechanism of these changes is analyzed when the slope rotated in a reversed direction to the slope dip during back-gully mining and form an unstable,multilateral block hinged structure,due to slipping.The subsidence of multilateral blocks is considerable when the block fragmentation is small,resulting in enormous changes in the underground pressure.With an increase in the mass of the block body,the block displacement will be reduced in conjunction with an increased clamp effect by both the unbroken rocks and broken rocks in the goaf,resulting in a decrease of the underground pressure.

Effects of gully terrain on stress field distribution and ground pressure behavior in shallow seam mining

This study proposes a novel approach to study stress field distribution and overlying ground pressure behavior in shallow seam mining in gully terrain.This approach combines numerical simulations and field tests based on the conditions of gully terrain in the Chuancao Gedan Mine.The effects of gully terrain on the in situ stress field of coal beds can be identified by the ratio of self-weight stress to vertical stress(η) at the location corresponding to the maximum vertical stress.Based on the function η =j(h),the effect of gully terrain on the stress field of overlying strata of the entire field can be characterized as a significantly affected area,moderately affected area,or non-affected area.Working face 6106 in the Chuancao Gedan Mine had a coal bed Jepth <80 m and was located in what was identified as a significantly affected area.Hence,mining may cause sliding of the gully slope and increased loading(including significant dynamic loading) on the roof strata.Field tests suggest that significant dynamic pressures were observed at the body and foot of the gully slope,and that dynamic loadings were observed upslope of the working face expansion,provided that the expanding direction of the working face is parallel to the gully.