Stress evolution with time and space during mining of a coal seam

Mining of the upper protective coal seam is widely practiced in China for coal mine safety, but relief gas may present a new risk of blasting. To control the relief gas effectively, a strain-soften model was built by FLAC3D software to investigate the stress evolution during the process of mining the upper protective coal seam. The results show that the abutment stress changes rapidly within 10 m in front of the coal face, and the maximum abutment stress is approximately twice the original when the coal seam is mined 20–30 m. The abutment stress should break the rock mass and cause the gas to flow easily. In the stable mining period, the change trends of the x-stress and z-stress are different, and these should also pre-break the rock mass. The stress distributions of the rock mass at different distances under the protective coal seam are different, especially near the coal face, which should greatly affect the gas flow when the space of the protective and protected coal seams change over a large range. The relief angle also changes over a large range, increasing to a maximum approximately 30 m behind the coal face, and it decreases gradually when it is far away from the protective coal seam. The results are helpful for designing the coal face of protected coal seams and borehole layouts to control the relief gas.

► We studied the stress evolution during the process of mining the upper protective coal seam. ► The evolution of the abutment stress, the stress under the mining coal seam and the relief angle were studied. ► The study is helpful for coal face design and relief gas control.