Failure characteristics and control technology for large‐section chamber in compound coal seams—A case study in Tashan Coal Mine

Abstract

Abstract The coal production exploited from extra‐thick coal seams accounts for 45% of China's total coal production. With large coal output, the extra‐thick coal seams require that the chamber section be more than 100 m2. In case of parting (the noncoal rock, usually mudstone, sandwiched in the coal seam) in the extra‐thick coal seams, the integrity of the coal seams will be damaged and the large‐section chamber is extremely easy to occur rib spalling and roof leakage, which will increase the chamber's supporting difficulty. To solve such problems, this paper took the electromechanical chamber in Tashan Coal Mine as the engineering background and analyzed the deformation and failure characteristics of this chamber surrounding rocks by the numerical simulation method during the excavation process. The results indicated that the failure areas of surrounding rocks were mainly in partings, chamber ribs, and chamber dome with the failure depths of 15 m, 10 m, and 5 m, respectively. Based on the obtained deformation and failure characteristics, the supporting method of grouting integrated with high‐strength bolts and anchor cables was put forward. The grouting method was firstly used to improve the integrity of the chamber surrounding rocks, and the high‐strength bolts and anchor cables were used for supporting. Then, the supporting parameters of the bolts and anchor cables and the grouting parameters were optimized by the numerical simulation method. The optimized parameters were applied in the electromechanical chamber in Tashan Coal Mine, and the on‐site chamber ribs lateral displacement and roof separation amounts were only 0.018 m and 0.012 m, respectively, indicating that the surrounding rocks were controlled effectively.

Keywords

• compound coal seam
• control technology
• failure characteristics
• large‐section chamber