Numerical simulation on the risk of roof water inrush in Wuyang Coal Mine

Water-inrush in mine is one of the mine disasters caused by mining. In order to assess the risk of roof water-inrush in Wuyang Coal Mine based on the geological material of the coal mine, we built numerical models for the roof fracture and seepage development rule by using RFPA2D and COMSOL respectively, to analyze the changes in fracture zone, stress, water pressure and seepage vector with the advancement of working face, and compared the results with the field investigated data. The numerical simulation results indicate that: (1) with the advancement of the working faces, the stress relief range and fracture zone in the overlying strata increased rapidly up to about 90 m, and then tended to remain constant, reaching a final height of about 95 m which agrees with the field investigation; (2) the seepage flow constantly increased with a larger flow volume both in the front and rear area, where the stress concentration are the most serious.