Multifractal analysis of electron images of fossil coal surface

Abstract

The multifractal spectra of electronic images of fossil coal surfaces obtained from outburst-hazardous zones, outburst-nonhazardous (quiet) zones and outburst zones are studied. It is shown that the structural organization of coal surface elements can be represented by a multifractal with a corresponding f (α) -spectrum of fractal dimensions, which is suitable to determine quantitative difference in microstructures of coal specimens from outburst-hazardous and outburst-nonhazardous beds. Coals from outburst-hazardous and outburst-nonhazardous beds differ in the direction of skewness of multifractal spectra characterizing their surface structure. If the f (α) -spectrum is skewed to the right, then the analyzed coal specimen belongs to an outburst-hazardous bed, and on the contrary, if f (α) is skewed to the left, then it can be concluded that the coal specimen most likely belongs to an outburst-nonhazardous bed.