Advanced techniques in site characterization and mining hazard detection for the underground coal industry

Abstract

Today's highly productive coal mining systems represent large capital investments. Careful geotechnical planning and design are essential to protect these systems and to help ensure their overall success. Too often, however, the ability of the mine operator to adequately characterize the geotechnical environment and keep up with changing geologic conditions lags the advance rate of the mining equipment. Seismic tomographic imaging, based on the same principles as medical Computer-Aided-Tomography (CAT) Scans, offers the ability to identify changing geologic conditions, loading patterns, and the location of nearby abandoned mine workings. Although seismic tomography has been used for many years in the oil industry, until recently its practicality in the mining industry has been limited because the processes involved interfered with mining productivity and were labor-intensive in terms of data collection and interpretation. New advancements in signal processing have greatly enhanced the speed, resolution, and range of applications of tomographic imaging in underground coal mine settings. Many tomography applications in the mining industry use seismic velocity and/or attenuation tomography within a volume enclosed by the seismic source and receiver array. Although results obtained using this geometry work well in many situations, recent developments in reflection tomography show promise in eliminating the requirement that the target volume be surrounded by sources/receivers. For example, in-seam seismic reflection tomography may now be used to image structures and/or old workings from one general location in the mine (e.g., face areas of mains and panel developments) well ahead of planned developments—largely eliminating the need to probe-hole drill on regular intervals. These new developments have greatly expanded the ability of the mine operator to cost-effectively characterize previously inaccessible areas of the property. This paper gives an overview of the theories and processes involved in seismic tomography applicable to coal mine settings. Recent examples are presented of tomographic imaging applied to a variety of coal mine ground control problems and old works detection in the United States and Europe. The applicability of both seismic refraction and seismic reflection tomography is discussed.