Principle and engineering application of pressure relief gas drainage in low permeability outburst coal seam

With the increase in mining depth, the danger of coal and gas outbursts increases.In order to drain coal gas effectively and to eliminate the risk of coal and gas outbursts, we used a specific number of penetration boreholes for draining of pressure relief gas.Based on the principle of overlying strata movement, deformation and pressure relief, a good effect of gas drainage was obtained.The practice in the Panyi coal mine has shown that, after mining the C11coal seam as the protective layer, the relative expansion deformation value of the protected layer C13 reached 2.63%, The permeability coefficient increased 2880 times, the gas drainage rate of the C13 coal seam increased to more than 60%, the amount of gas was reduced from 13.0 to 5.2 m3/t and the gas pressure declined from 4.4 to 0.4 MPa, which caused the danger the outbursts in the coal seams to be eliminated.The result was that we achieved a safe and highly efficient mining operation of the C13 coal seam.

Evolution and application of in-seam drilling for gas drainage

The presence of seam gas in the form of methane or carbon dioxide presents a hazard to underground coal mining operations.In-seam drilling has been undertaken for the past three decades for gas drainage to reduce the risk of gas outburst and lower the concentrations of seam gas in the underground ventilation.The drilling practices have reflected the standards of the times and have evolved with the development of technology and equipment and the needs to provide a safe mining environment underground.Early practice was to adapt equipment from other felds,with rotary drilling being the only form of drilling available.This form of drainage allowed various levels of gas drainage coverage but with changing emphasis,research and development within the coal industry has created specifc equipment,technology and practices to accurately place in-seam boreholes to provide effcient and effective gas drainage.Research into gas content determination established a standard for the process and safe levels for mining operations to continue.Surveying technology improved from the wire-line,single-shot Eastman survey instruments which was time-dependent on borehole depth to electronic instruments located in the drill string which transmitted accurate survey data to the drilling crew without time delays.This allowed improved directional control and increased drilling rates.Directional drilling technology has now been established as the industry standard to provide effective gas drainage drilling.Exploration was identifed as an additional beneft with directional drilling as it has the ability to provide exploration data from long boreholes.The ability of the technology to provide safe and reliable means to investigate the need for inrush protection and water drainage ahead of mining has been established.Directional drilling technology has now been introduced to the Chinese coal industry for gas drainage through a practice of auditing,design,supply,training and ongoing support.Experienced drilling crews can offer site specifc gas drainage drilling services utilising the latest equipment and technology.

CFD simulations for longwall gas drainage design optimisation

Computational fluid dynamics(CFD) simulation is an effective approach to develop and optimise gas drainage design for underground longwall coal mining. As part of the project supported by the Australian Government Coal Mining Abatement Technology Support Package(CMATSP), threedimensional CFD simulations were conducted to test and optimise a conceptual design which proposes using horizontal boreholes to replace vertical boreholes at an underground coal mine in Australia.Drainage performance between a vertical borehole and a horizontal borehole was first carried out to compare their capacity and effectiveness. Then a series of cases with different horizontal borehole designs were simulated to optimise borehole configuration parameters such as location, diameter, and number of boreholes. The study shows that the horizontal borehole is able to create low pressure sinks that protect the workings from goaf gas ingresses by changing goaf gas flow directions, and that it has the advantage to continuously maintain such low pressure sinks near the tailgate as the longwall advances. An example of optimising horizontal borehole locations in the longwall lateral direction is also given in this paper.