Numerical Simulation of Coal Floor Fault Activation Influenced by Mining

By means of the numerical simulation software ANSYS, the activation regularity of coal floor faults caused by mining is simulated. The results indicate that the variation in horizontal, vertical and shear stresses, as well as the horizontal and vertical displacements in the upper and the lower fault blocks at the workface are almost identical. Influ- enced by mining of the floor rock, there are stress releasing and stress rising areas at the upper part and at the footwall of the fault. The distribution of stress is influenced by the fault so that the stress isolines are staggered by the fault face and the stress is focused on the rock seam around the two ends of the fault. But the influence in fault activation on the upper or the lower fault blocks of the workface is markedly different. When the workface is on the footwall of the fault, there is a horizontal tension stress area on the upper part of the fault; when the workface is on the upper part of the fault, it has a horizontal compressive stress area on the lower fault block. When the workface is at the lower fault block, the maximum vertical displacement is 5 times larger then when the workface is on the upper fault block, which greatly in- creases the chance of a fatal inrush of water from the coal floor.

Determining maximum shear stress in confined substrate from elastic wave reflection coefficient

The relationship between the maximum shear stress in a substrate solid and the elastic wave reflection coefficient from the interface between the substrate solid and an overlying solid half-space is investigated. Both substrate and overlying solid media are assumed to be initially isotropic and stress-free. Then as the substrate is subjected to horizontal confined stresses it becomes anisotropic. It is shown that longitudinal and shear wave reflection coefficients are related to the degree of stress induced anisotropy in the substrate medium. From this relation the confined stress level and the maximum shear stress generated on the vertical planes of the substrate are estimated. Authors in their previous investigation computed plane wave reflection coefficient in a biaxially compressed solid substrate immersed in a fluid. This paper reports for the first time how the maximum shear stress in a biaxially compressed substrate medium can be measured from the plane wave reflection coefficients when the overlying medium is also a solid half-space.