Stress distribution and its influencing factors of bottom-hole rock in underbalanced drilling

The underbalanced drilling has been widely used due to its advantages of high drilling efficiency and low cost etc., especially for hard formation drilling. These advantages, however, are closely related to the stress state of the bottom-hole rock; therefore, it is significant to research the stress distribution of bottom-hole rock for the correct understanding of the mechanism of rock fragmentation and high penetration rate. The stress condition of bottom-hole rock is very complicated while under the co-action of overburden pressure, horizontal in-situ stresses, drilling mud pressure, pore pressure and temperature etc. In this paper, the fully coupled simulation model is established and the effects of overburden pressure, horizontal in-situ stresses, drilling mud pressure, pore pressure and temperature on stress distribution of bottom-hole rock are studied. The research shows that： in air drilling, as the well depth increases, the more easily the bottom-hole rock is broken; the mud pressure has a great effect on the bottom hole rock. The bigger the mud pressure is, the more difficult to break the bottom-hole rock; the max principle stress of the bottom-hole increased with the increasing of mud pressure, well depth and temperature difference. The bottom-hole rock can be divided into 3 regions respectively according to the stress state, 3 direction stretch zone, 2 direction compression area and 3 direction compression zone; the corresponding fragmentation degree of difficulty is easily, normally and hardly.

Predicting Rock Burst in Underground Engineering Leveraging a Novel Metaheuristic-Based LightGBM Model

Rock bursts represent a formidable challenge in underground engineering,posing substantial risks to both infrastructure and human safety.These sudden and violent failures of rock masses are characterized by the rapid release of accumulated stress within the rock,leading to severe seismic events and structural damage.Therefore,the development of reliable prediction models for rock bursts is paramount to mitigating these hazards.This study aims to propose a tree-based model—a Light Gradient Boosting Machine(LightGBM)—to predict the intensity of rock bursts in underground engineering.322 actual rock burst cases are collected to constitute an exhaustive rock burst dataset,which serves to train the LightGBMmodel.Two population-basedmetaheuristic algorithms are used to optimize the hyperparameters of the LightGBM model.Finally,the sensitivity analysis is used to identify the predominant factors that may incur the occurrence of rock bursts.The results show that the population-based metaheuristic algorithms have a good ability to search out the optimal hyperparameters of the LightGBM model.The developed LightGBM model yields promising performance in predicting the intensity of rock bursts,with which accuracy on training and testing sets are 0.972 and 0.944,respectively.The sensitivity analysis discloses that the risk of occurring rock burst is significantly sensitive to three factors:uniaxial compressive strength(σc),stress concentration factor(SCF),and elastic strain energy index(Wet).Moreover,this study clarifies the particular impact of these three factors on the intensity of rock bursts through the partial dependence plot.

Prediction of rock burst classification using cloud model with entropy weight

The method of cloud model with entropy weight was adopted for the prediction of rock burst classification. Some main factors of rock burst including the uniaxial compressive strength （σc）, the tensile strength （σt）, the tangential stress （σθ）, the rock brittleness coefficient （σc/σt）, the stress coefficient （σθ /σc） and the elastic energy index （Wet） are chosen to establish evaluation index system. The entropy？cloud model and criterion are obtained through 209 sets of rock burst samples from underground rock projects. The sensitivity of indicators is analyzed and 209 sets of rock burst samples are discriminated by this model. The discriminant results of the entropy-cloud model are compared with those of Bayes, KNN and RF methods. The results show that the sensitivity order of those factors from high to low is σ_θ /σ_c, σ_θ, W_（ct）, σ_c/σ_t, σ_t, σ_c, and the entropy-cloud model has higher accuracy than Bayes, K-Nearest Neighbor algorithm （KNN） and Random Forest （RF） methods.

Rock burst mechanism analysis in an advanced segment of gob-side entry under different dip angles of the seam and prevention technology

In order to investigate the frequent occurrences of rock burst in gob-side entry during the mining process of the mining zone No. 7, the mechanical model of main roof of fully-mechanized caving mining before breaking was established by the Winkler foundation beam theory, and the stress evolution law of surrounding rock with different dip angles of the seam during the mining process was analyzed by using FLAC3 D. The results show that: with the dip angle changing from 45° to 0°, the solid-coal side of gobside entry begins to form an L-shaped stress concentration zone at a dip angle of 30°, and the stress concentration degree goes to higher and higher levels. However, the stress concentration degree of the coalpillar side goes to lower and lower levels; the influence range and peak stress of the abutment at the lateral strata of adjacent gob increase with dip angle decreasing and reach a maximum value at a dip angle of 0°, but the tailgate is not affected; the abutment pressure superposition of two adjacent gobs leads to stress concentration further enhancing in both sides of gob-side entry. With the influence of strong mining disturbance, rock burst is easily induced by dynamic and static combined load in the advanced segment of gob-side entry. To achieve stability control similar to that in the roadway, the key control strategy is to reinforce surrounding rock and unload both sides. Accordingly, the large-diameter drilling and high-pressure water injection combined unloading and reinforced support cooperative control technology was proposed and applied in field test. The results of Electromagnetic Emission(EME) and field observation showed that unloading and surrounding rock control effect was obvious.

Mechanism of rock burst caused by fracture of key strata during irregular working face mining and its prevention methods

To study the occurrence mechanism of rock burst during mining the irregular working face,the study took irregular panel 7447 near fault tectonic as an engineering background.The spatial fracture characteristic of overlying strata was analyzed by Winkler elastic foundation beam theory.Furthermore,the influence law of panel width to suspended width and limit breaking span of key strata were also analyzed by thin plate theory.Through micro-seismic monitoring,theoretical analysis,numerical simulation and working resistance of support of field measurement,this study investigated the fracture characteristic of overlying strata and mechanism of rock burst in irregular working face.The results show that the fracture characteristic of overlying strata shows a spatial trapezoid structure,with the main roof being as an undersurface.The fracture form changes from vertical‘‘O-X"type to transverse‘‘O-X"type with the increase of trapezoidal height.From the narrow mining face to the wide mining face,the suspended width of key strata is greater than its limit breaking width,and a strong dynamic load is produced by the fracture of key strata.The numerical simulation and micro-seismic monitoring results show that the initial fracture position of key strata is close to tailgate 7447.Also there is a high static load caused by fault tectonic.The dynamic and static combined load induce rock burst.Accordingly,a cooperative control technology was proposed,which can weaken dynamic load by hard roof directional hydraulic fracture and enhance surrounding rock by supporting system.

Comprehensive early warning of rock burst utilizing microseismic multi-parameter indices

Rock bursts have become one of the most severe risks in underground coal mining and its early warning is an important component in the safety management. Microseismic(MS) monitoring is considered potentially as a powerful tool for the early warning of rock burst. In this study, an MS multi-parameter index system was established and the critical values of each index were estimated based on the normalized multi-information warning model of coal-rock dynamic failure. This index system includes bursting strain energy(BSE) index, time-space-magnitude independent information(TSMII) indices and timespace-magnitude compound information(TSMCI) indices. On the basis of this multi-parameter index system, a comprehensive analysis was conducted via introducing the R-value scoring method to calculate the weights of each index. To calibrate the multi-parameter index system and the associated comprehensive analysis, the weights of each index were first confirmed using historical MS data occurred in LW402102 of Hujiahe Coal Mine(China) over a period of four months. This calibrated comprehensive analysis of MS multi-parameter index system was then applied to pre-warn the occurrence of a subsequent rock burst incident in LW 402103. The results demonstrate that this multi-parameter index system combined with the comprehensive analysis are capable of quantitatively pre-warning rock burst risk.

Rock burst risk evaluation based on equivalent surrounding rock strength

On-site investigations consistently show that the rock burst inherent to coal seams varies greatly with coal seam thickness.In this study,impact factors related to coal seam thickness and surrounding rock strength were analyzed and a corresponding rock burst risk assessment method was constructed.The model reflects the influence of coal seam thickness on the stress distribution of surrounding rock at the roadway.Based on the roadway excavation range,a stress distribution model of surrounding roadway rock is established and the influence of coal seam thickness on rock burst risk is analyzed accordingly.The proposed rock burst risk assessment method is based on the equivalent surrounding rock strength and coal seam bursting liability.The proposed method was tested in a 3500 mining area to find that it yields rock burst risk assessment results as per coal seam thickness that are in accordance with real-world conditions.The results presented here suggest that coal seam thickness is a crucial factor in effective rock burst risk assessment.

Assessment of rockburst hazard by quantifying the consequence with plastic strain work and released energy in numerical models

Quantifying the rockburst consequence is of critical importance to reduce the hazards with preventative measures in underground mines and deep tunnels. Contours of energy components within a pillar model are plotted at different rockmass damage stages, and plastic strain work and released energy are proposed as indicators of rockmass damage consequence. One pillar model under different loading stiffness is simulated to assess indicators of pillar burst and the resulting damages. The results show the rockmass damage under soft loading stiffness has larger magnitude of plastic strain work and released energy than that which is under stiff loading stiffness, indicating the rockburst consequence can be quantified with plastic strain work and released energy in numerical models. With the quantified rockburst consequence,preventative measures can be taken to avoid severe hazards to mine safety.

Application of high-pressure water jet technology and the theory of rock burst control in roadway

This paper puts forward using high-pressure water jet technology to control rock burst in roadway, and analyzes the theory of controlling rock burst in roadway by the weak structure zone model. The weak structure zone is formed by using high-pressure water jet to cut the coal wall in a continuous and rotational way. In order to study the influence law of weak structure zone in surrounding rock, this paper numerically analyzed the influence law of weak structure zone, and the disturbance law of coal wall and floor under dynamic and static combined load. The results show that when the distance between high-pressure water jet drillings is 3 m and the diameter of drilling is 300 mm, continuous stress superposition zone can be formed. The weak structure zone can transfer and reduce the concentrated static load in surrounding rock, and then form distressed zone. The longer the high-pressure water jet drilling is, the larger the distressed zone is. The stress change and displacement change of non-distressed zone in coal wall and floor are significantly greater than that of distressed zone under dynamic and static combined load. And it shows that the distressed zone can effectively control rock burst in roadway under dynamic and static combined load. High-pressure water jet technology was applied in the haulage gate of 250203 working face in Yanbei Coal Mine, and had gained good effect. The study conclusions provide theoretical foundation and a new guidance for controlling rock burst in roadway.

Risk evaluation of rock burst through theory of static and dynamic stresses superposition

Rock burst is one of the most catastrophic dynamic hazards in coal mining. A static and dynamic stresses superposition-based(SDSS-based) risk evaluation method of rock burst was proposed to pre-evaluate rock burst risk. Theoretical basis of this method is the stress criterion incurring rock burst and rock burst risk is evaluated according to the closeness degree of the total stress(due to the superposition of static stress in the coal and dynamic stress induced by tremors) with the critical stress. In addition, risk evaluation criterion of rock burst was established by defining the "Satisfaction Degree" of static stress. Furthermore,the method was used to pre-evaluate rock burst risk degree and prejudge endangered area of an insular longwall face in Nanshan Coal Mine in China. Results show that rock burst risk is moderate at advance extent of 97 m, strong at advance extent of 97-131 m,and extremely strong(i.e. inevitable to occur) when advance extent exceeds 131 m(mining is prohibited in this case). The section of two gateways whose floor abuts 15-3 coal seam is a susceptible area prone to rock burst. Evaluation results were further compared with rock bursts and tremors detected by microseismic monitoring. Comparison results indicate that evaluation results are consistent with microseismic monitoring, which proves the method's feasibility.

Rock burst prediction based on genetic algorithms and extreme learning machine

Rock burst is a kind of geological disaster in rock excavation of high stress areas.To evaluate intensity of rock burst,the maximum shear stress,uniaxial compressive strength,uniaxial tensile strength and rock elastic energy index were selected as input factors,and burst pit depth as output factor.The rock burst prediction model was proposed according to the genetic algorithms and extreme learning machine.The effect of structural surface was taken into consideration.Based on the engineering examples of tunnels,the observed and collected data were divided into the training set,validation set and prediction set.The training set and validation set were used to train and optimize the model.Parameter optimization results are presented.The hidden layer node was450,and the fitness of the predictions was 0.0197 under the optimal combination of the input weight and offset vector.Then,the optimized model is tested with the prediction set.Results show that the proposed model is effective.The maximum relative error is4.71%,and the average relative error is 3.20%,which proves that the model has practical value in the relative engineering.

Rock burst proneness prediction by acoustic emission test during rock deformation

Rock burst is a severe disaster in mining and underground engineering,and it is important to predict the rock burst risk for minimizing the loss during the constructing process.The rock burst proneness was connected with the acoustic emission(AE) parameter in this work,which contributes to predicting the rock burst risk using AE technique.Primarily,a rock burst proneness index is proposed,and it just depends on the heterogeneous degree of rock material.Then,the quantificational formula between the value of rock burst proneness index and the accumulative AE counts in rock sample under uniaxial compression with axial strain increases is developed.Finally,three kinds of rock samples,i.e.,granite,limestone and sandstone are tested about variation of the accumulative AE counts under uniaxial compression,and the test data are fitted well with the theoretic formula.

Numerical Simulation of Rock Burst in Circular Tunnels Under Unloading Conditions

Rock burst in a circular tunnel under high in-situ stress conditions was investigated with a numerical method coupled the rock failure process theory (RFPA) and discontinuous deformation theory (DDA). Some numerical tests were carraied out to investigate the failuer patterns of circular tunnel under unloading conditions. Compared the results under loading conditions,the shapes of failure zones are more regular under the unloading conditions. The failure pat-terns in the same type of rock mass are clearly different because of non-homogeneity of the rock material. The extension of cracks shows some predictability with an increasing of in-situ stress. When the homogeneity index of rocks (m) is ei-ther relatively high or low and lateral pressure coefficients (λ) is high,the number of regular shear slide cracks decreases and the probability of a rock burst also becomes lower. Our numerical simulation results show that the stability of sur-face rock and the natural bedding stratification of rock material greatly affect rock bursts. Installing bolts with due dili-gence and suitably can effectively prevent rock bursts. However,it is not effective to control rock bursts by releasing the strain energy with normal pre-boreholes.

Quantitative calculation for the dissipated energy of fault rock burst based on gradient-dependent plasticity

The capacity of energy absorption by fault bands after rock burst wascalculated quantitatively according to shear stress-shear deformation curves considering theinteractions and interplaying among microstructures due to the heterogeneity of strain softeningrock materials. The post-peak stiffness of rock specimens subjected to direct shear was derivedstrictly based on gradient-dependent plasticity, which can not be obtained from the classicalelastoplastic theory. Analytical solutions for the dissipated energy of rock burst were proposedwhether the slope of the post-peak shear stress-shear deformation curve is positive or not. Theanalytical solutions show that shear stress level, confining pressure, shear strength, brittleness,strain rate and heterogeneity of rock materials have important influence on the dissipated energy.The larger value of the dissipated energy means that the capacity of energy dissipation in the formof shear bands is superior and a lower magnitude of rock burst is expected under the condition ofthe same work done by external shear force. The possibility of rock burst is reduced for a lowersoftening modulus or a larger thickness of shear bands.

Rock burst induced by roof breakage and its prevention

Based on the research on rock burst phenomenon induced by the breakage of thick and hard roof around roadways and working faces in coal mines, a criterion of rock burst induced by roof breakage （RBRB） was proposed and the model was built. Through the model, a method calculating the varied stresses induced by roof breakage in support objects and coal body was proposed and a unified formula was derived for the calculation of stress increment on support objects and coal body under different breaking forms of roof. Whilst the formula for calculating dynamic load was derived by introducing dynamic index Kd. The formula was verified in Huating Mine by stress measurement. According to the formula for stress increment calculating, the sensitivities of dynamic load parameters were further studied. The results show that the thickness and breaking depth of roof, width of support objeet are the sensitive factors. Based on the discussion of the model, six associated effective methods for rock burst prevention are obtained.

Numerical simulation study on hard-thick roof inducing rock burst in coal mine

In order to reveal the dynamic process of hard-thick roof inducing rock burst, one of the most common and strongest dynamic disasters in coal mine, the numerical simulation is conducted to study the dynamic loading effect of roof vibration on roadway surrounding rocks as well as the impact on stability. The results show that, on one hand, hard-thick roof will result in high stress concentration on mining surrounding rocks; on the other hand, the breaking of hard-thick roof will lead to mining seismicity, causing dynamic loading effect on coal and rock mass. High stress concentration and dynamic loading combination reaches to the mechanical conditions for the occurrence of rock burst, which will induce rock burst. The mining induced seismic events occurring in the roof breaking act on the mining surrounding rocks in the form of stress wave. The stress wave then has a reflection on the free surface of roadway and the tensile stress will be generated around the free surface. Horizontal vibration of roadway surrounding particles will cause instant changes of horizontal stress of roadway surrounding rocks; the horizontal displacement is directly related to the horizontal stress but is not significantly correlated with the vertical stress; the increase of horizontal stress of roadway near surface surrounding rocks and the release of elastic deformation energy of deep surrounding coal and rock mass are immanent causes that lead to the impact instability of roadway surrounding rocks. The most significant measures for rock burst prevention are controlling of horizontal stress and vibration strength.Key words

Assessment and analysis of strata movement with special reference to rock burst mechanism in island longwall panel

This study presents a novel approach using theoretical analysis to assess the risk of rock burst of an island longwall panel that accounts for the coupled behavior of stress distribution and overlying strata movement. The height of destressed zone(HDZ) above the mined panel was first determined based on the strain energy balance in an underground coal mining area. HDZ plays a vital role in accurately determining the amount of different loads being transferred towards the front abutment and panel sides. Subsequently, based on the load transfer mechanisms, a series of formulae were derived for the average static and dynamic stresses in the island pillar through theoretical analysis. Finally, the model was applied to determining the side abutment stress distribution of LW 3112 in the Chaoyang Coal Mine and the results of ground subsidence monitoring were used to verify the predicted model. It can be concluded that the proposed computational model can be successfully applied to determining the safety of mining in island longwall panels.

Determination of ejection velocity of rock fragments during rock burst in consideration of damage

The ejection velocity of rock fragments during rock burst, one of the important indexes representing the rock burst strength, is used most conveniently in the supporting design of tunnel with rock burst tendency and is often determined by means of observation devices. In order to calculate the average ejection velocity of rock fragments theoretically, the energy of rock burst was divided into damage consuming energy and kinetic energy gained by unit volume of rock firstly, and then the rock burst kinetic proportional coefficient η was brought up which could be determined according to the rock-burst damage energy index W_D , at last the expression of the average ejection velocity of rock fragments during rock burst was obtained and one deep level underground tunnel was researched using the mentioned method. The results show that the calculation method is valid with or without considering the tectonic stress of tunnels, and that the method can be a reference for supporting design of deep mining.

Physical simulation of rock burst induced by stress waves

The behavior of stress wave propagation in rock walls and the process of rock bursts were simulated by application tests of material similar to rock. Results show that 1) the attenuation characteristics of stress waves were related to the material proper-ties, stress waves attenuate more quickly in soft material and 2) when the explosion load was applied at the top of the roadway, the number and the length of the cracks increased with a decrease in the distance between the explosive point and roof of the roadway. When the distance was 280 mm, only some chips appeared near the source, when the distance was 210 mm, some small cracks started to appear near the road-rib and when the distance was reduced to 140 mm, larger cracks appeared at the road-rib. It can be concluded that, under a given stress the number of cracks is closely related to the intensity of stress waves. The cracks in the sur-rounding rock can be reduced by controlling the intensity of the stress waves and rock bursts can be avoided to some extent by pre-venting the formation of layered crack structures. A new experimental approach has been provided for studying rock bursts by using physical simulation.

Study on fault induced rock bursts

In order to study the rules of rock bursts caused by faults by means of mechanical analysis of a roof rock-mass balanced structure and numerical simulation about fault slip destabilization, the effect of coal mining operation on fault plane stresses and slip displacement were studied. The results indicate that the slip displacement sharply increases due to the decrease of normal stress and the increase of shear stress at the fault plane when the working face advances from the footwall to the fault itself, which may induce a fault rock burst. However, this slip displacement will be very small due to the increase of normal stress and the decrease of shear stress when the working face advances from the hanging wall to the fault itself, which results in a very small risk of a fault rock burst.