Evolution of Stress Concentration and Energy Release Before Rock Bursts: Two Case Studies from Xingan Coal mine, Hegang, China

Abstract

Since the first recorded rock burst occurred in England in 1738, more than 20 countries have reported rock bursts (Kabiesz and Makowka 2009; Ortlepp and Stacey 1994; Patynska and Kabiesz 2009; Patynska 2013; Uszko 2009), including Germany, South Africa, Poland, the Czech Republic, Canada, Japan, France, etc. In China, rock bursts have become a common safety issue in underground coal mining. The number of coal mines experiencing rock bursts has increased annually (Jiang et al. 2010; Li et al. 2015). To date, 142 coal mines in China have suffered rock bursts which resulted in large economic losses and heavy casualties. For instance, the rock burst on 15 March 2013 in Junde Coal mine, Hegang City, caused the closure of a 200 m gateway, trapped 24 people, and killed four (Lu et al. 2015). The rock burst on 3 November 2011 in Qianqiu Coal mine, Yima City trapped 75 people underground and killed 10 people (Li et al. 2015). The rock burst on 14 February 2005 in Sunjiawan Coal mine, Fuxin City, caused a serious gas explosion and killed 214 people (State Administration of Work Safety, State Administration of Coalmine Safety 2005). The temporal and spatial evolution of mining-induced tremors reveals the process of initiation, development, and expansion of micro-fractures inside the coal-rock mass together with energy accumulation and release. This process may develop to cause either a tremor or a rock burst (Li et al. 2014; Wang et al. 2013). Tremors, rock bursts, or both are more likely to be induced in high-stress regions and the energy released therein is much higher. Therefore, rock burst risk can be evaluated by locating high-stress, and high-energy, regions. Microseismic (MS) monitoring is applicable when detecting the location and energy of mining-induced tremors. Recently, seismic velocity tomography (SVT) has been widely used for inference of high-stress distribution zones in underground mines by introducing seismic signals received by MS monitoring systems. For instance, Luxbacher et al. (2008) and Hosseini et al. (2012, 2013) conducted SVT by introducing mining-induced seismic signals, and found that high-velocity regions agreed well with high-abutment stress regions as predicted by numerical modelling, both of which were observed to redistribute as the coalface advanced. Dou et al. (2012), Banka and Jaworski (2010), and Lurka (2008) conducted SVT at regular time intervals during longwall mining, and found that rock bursts, or strong seismic events (i.e. tremors in underground mining), mainly occurred in high-velocity regions. Meanwhile, the bursting strain energy (BSE) index, which views rock bursts as a process of energy accumulation and release in the coal-rock mass as mining activities disturb the in situ stress field, was proposed here to characterise the spatial distribution of tremors [refer to Cai et al. (2015) for more details]. It was found that the & Si-yuan Gong libcumt@163.com