Coal strength and Young's modulus related to coal rank, compressional velocity and maceral composition

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental investigation of coal rank and maceral composition influences on the coal mechanical behaviors. The complete stress–strain behavior, uniaxial compressive strength, Young's modulus, and acoustic compressional velocity were measured and correlated to coal ranks and microstructures. The test results show that coal is an elasto-brittle geo-material and its uniaxial compressive strength and Young's modulus increase as coal rank increases. This occurs because as vitrinite reflectance or coal rank increases, coal has less microporous structure and thus higher uniaxial compressive strength. Therefore, using vitrinite reflectance value instead of vitrinite content is advantageous for correlating coal strength. The experimental results also demonstrate that compressive strength and Young's modulus have positive exponential correlation, even for different types of coal. Therefore, the compressive strength of coal is highly related to its Young's modulus. The uniaxial compressive strength and acoustic compressional velocity of coal are also correlated, but a single correlation does not exist for different coal ranks; instead, different relationships occur for different types of coal.