Mechanism, Cause, and Control of Water, Solutes, and Gas Migration Triggered by Mining Activities

Fangtian Wang,Bisheng Wu,Mandadige S A Perera,Wen Wang,Qingsheng Bai

doi:10.1155/2019/5789152

Abstract

Although the growth in global coal consumption has been sharply slowed with the falls in China offset to a greater extent by the increasing demand in India and other emerging Asian countries, coal still remains the largest source of energy for the world with a share of almost 30% by 2040 [1]. Mining industry plays an important role in extracting underground resources, including coal [2]. However, a large number of disastrous mine accidents, such as flood, water inrush, tunnel collapse, gas outburst, and gas explosion, have been reported due to water and gas migration caused by the mining activities, posing a threat to the environment and also to the health and safety of field workers [3–5]. According to incomplete statistics, mining-induced accidents kill over thousands of workers around the world every year, especially in developing countries such as China and India. Water inrush and gas explosion accidents are the major causes for the reported mine accidents [6, 7].

Highlights

The results indicated that the permeabilitydisplacement curves can be divided into three stages, i.e., a stable stage, a stage with permeability decreasing, and a second stable stage, which exhibit similar behavior as the shear stress-displacement curves
The results show that the adsorption becomes stronger when the specific surface area and the fracture porosity increase and the matrix size decreases
Zhang et al established a mechanical model based on the theory of elastic foundation beam and characteristics of short-wall block filling mining to predict the height of water flowing fracture zone under these specific conditions

Summary

Introduction

Mining activity may cause potential environmental issues [8,9,10], such as underground mine water, coal mine methane, ground subsidence, and acid mine drainage. As there are many factors affecting this coupled process, the mechanism behind the water and gas migration and rock deformation has still not been completely understood and needs to be further investigated so that proper measures can be taken to prevent mining-induced hazards.

Results

Conclusion