Investigation of a non-explosive directional roof cutting technology for self-formed roadway

Traditional explosives have characteristics of high risk,large vibration,and poor directional fracturing.Consequently,an instantaneous expander with a single crack surface(IESCS),which is a novel nonexplosive directional rock-breaking technique,has been developed.The directional roof-cutting mechanism of the IESCS method,driven by high-pressure gas,was theoretically analyzed.Laboratory experiments and numerical simulations proved the directional slitting effect of the IESCS method to be excellent.Compared with shaped-charge blasting,the charge of IESCS was reduced by 8.9%,but the crack rate increased by 9%in field tests.After IESCS pre-splitting,the roof directionally collapsed along the cutting line,and the gangue filled the goaf.Moreover,the directional roof cutting by the IESCS could decrease roadway stress.The average pressure of hydraulic supports on the cutting side of the roof was 31%lower than that on the non-cutting side of the roof after pre-splitting.After the self-formed roadway constructed by the IESCS was stabilized,the final relative displacement of the roof and floor was 157.3 mm,meeting the required standard of the next working face.Thus,the IESCS was effectively applied to directional roof pre-splitting.The results demonstrate the promising potential of IESCS in the mining and geotechnical fields.

Bearing mechanism of roof and rib support structure in automatically formed roadway and its support design method

Non-pillar mining technology with automatically formed roadway is a new mining method without coal pillar reservation and roadway excavation.The stability control of automatically formed roadway is the key to the successful application of the new method.In order to realize the stability control of the roadway surrounding rock,the mechanical model of the roof and rib support structure is established,and the influence mechanism of the automatically formed roadway parameters on the compound force is revealed.On this basis,the roof and rib support structure technology of confined lightweight concrete is proposed,and its mechanical tests under different eccentricity are carried out.The results show that the bearing capacity of confined lightweight concrete specimens is basically the same as that of ordinary confined concrete specimens.The bearing capacity of confined lightweight concrete specimens under different eccentricities is 1.95 times higher than those of U-shaped steel specimens.By comparing the test results with the theoretical calculated results of the confined concrete,the calculation method of the bearing capacity for the confined lightweight concrete structure is selected.The design method of confined lightweight concrete support structure is established,and is successfully applied in the extra-large mine,Ningtiaota Coal Mine,China.