Permeability enhancement mechanism of sand‐carrying hydraulic fracturing in deep mining: A case study of uncovering coal in cross‐cut

Abstract

Abstract Coal and gas outburst disasters are prone to occur within rock cross‐cut coal uncovering in deep underground coal mines. To reduce the risk of coal and gas burst under rock cross‐cut coal uncovering, a technique of permeability enhancement using hydraulic fracturing sand‐carrying is proposed. Field test was conducted using HF sand‐carrying approach, and the effect of permeability enhancement was investigated. The results show that the evolution of cracks has been subjected three stages: energy slowly increasing and crack initiation, damage localization of coal seam and gradually failure, and crack instability expansion and formation of a complex fracture network system. In addition, it is found that “water‐sand” type injection of high‐pressure fluid carried sand into HF cracks, which creates a support force on crack surface and prevents crack closure. A fully developed fracture network system with high flow conductivity capacity is created and thus increases gas permeability largely. Furthermore, a clearly increasing trend associated with the HF sand‐carrying is found for the treated coal seam area. The permeability coefficient is about 21.5‐30.5 times higher than that from the raw coal seam. A good prevention effect of coal and gas outburst is achieved using HF sand‐carrying method.

Keywords

• coal and gas outburst
• deep mining
• hydraulic fracturing
• permeability enhancement
• uncovering coal