Gas pressure, in-situ stress and coal strength effects on the evolution process of coal and gas outbursts based on the experimental data

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper investigated the effects of gas pressure, in-situ stress, and coal strength on coal and gas outbursts (CGO) based on the laboratory CGO experimental data. Based on the hypothesis of the comprehensive of CGO, the single-factor control variable method was used to analyze and evaluate the relative outburst intensity, the characteristics of outburst holes, the distribution of pulverized coal, the drops of outburst gas pressure, and the pulverized coal density under different outbursts experimental condition. The improved CGO energy equation and instability criterion are proposed as a direction to study the occurrence of CGO as an energy evolution direction. Furthermore, the results shows that the initial outburst gas pressure was 0.45 MPa during the experimental conditions of in-situ stress was 5 MPa, and the coal strength was 0.24 MPa. The gas pressure is directly proportional to the relative outburst intensity, while the in-situ stress and coal strength are inversely proportional to the relative outburst intensity. After the CGO occurred, the outburst coal always show spallation and pulverization characteristics. The results highlight that the gas pressure plays a key role in pulverizing and throwing out the pulverized coal, and the in-situ stress mainly plays a role in destroying the coal, and the coal strength plays a resistance role during the CGO occurs. It is also found that pulverized coal particles size less than 0.28 mm can be used to represent the distribution pattern of the total weight of outburst pulverized coal particles in the different outburst interval. These results clearly illustrate that using effective methods to control gas pressure, in-situ stress, and coal strength has an important role in preventing and controlling CGO on coal mining sites.