Citation

Javadi M, Saeedi G, Shahriar K. J. Fail. Anal. Prev. 2018; 18(6): 1503-1515.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, ASM International, Publisher Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11668-018-0547-9

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Coal bump [is a seismic jolt occurring within an underground mine due to the explosive collapse of one or more support pillars] is one of the most important hazards for underground miners due to occurrence without warning. This hazard leads to the problems in the form of injury, disability or fatality as well as economic loss for the mining companies. As a result, development of a model for risk analysis of coal bump is an important issue in safety of underground coal mining. Although the mechanism of the bump is not well understood, it is found that stress condition is strongly associated with the coal bump. In this research, a numerical model is developed for analyzing of coal bump risk to map the zones with a high risk in Tabas Coal Mine, Iran.

RESULTS show that the concentration of the abutment stress that could lead to a coal bump starts at more than 25 m in front of the mining face and increases nearer the face. Moreover, stress concentration starts to accelerate at a distance of 10 m ahead of the mining face. Large and rapid stress concentration is a distinct precursor of coal bump occurrence during longwall mining. Therefore, zones at a distance less than 10 m in front of the face are predicted as the bump-prone zones. The mentioned zones that moved ahead of the mining face must be considered in the mine risk analysis plan. The numerical results were validated against the monitoring data collected to measure the roof displacement in the mine roadways and confirm that prediction of the coal bump by this approach is accurate and satisfied.

Language: en

Keywords

Coal bump; FLAC3D; Longwall; Stress distribution