Abstract
Controlling floor heave plays an important role in the stability of mining roadways that is pivotal to the sustainable, safe, and efficient development of coal resources in underground coal mines. In order to propose highly efficient and economical methods of controlling floor heave, numerical simulation, laboratory physical simulation, and engineering practice were carried out to reveal the mechanism of reinforcing roof and sidewalls to control the floor heave of the mining roadway, return airway 15208, in the Xinjing Coal Mine in the Yanquan mining area of China. The numerical simulation demonstrated that the surrounding rock of the roadway underwent expansion and deformation, accompanied by redistribution of the surrounding rock stress due to the reinforcement of the roof and two sidewalls. The laboratory physical simulation revealed that the reinforcing roof and sidewalls decreased the bed separation of the floor and reduced the quantity of the displacement of the floor in Coal Seam 15. Engineering practice showed that the floor heave in the roadway, the roof, and the sidewalls, which was reinforced by intensive bolts combined with steel belt, wire mesh, and cable, was significantly reduced compared with that with lower supporting intensity of roof and sidewalls. The floor heave could be successfully controlled.
Highlights
According to incomplete statistics, the length of mining roadways exceeds 8000 km, which accounts for 80% of the total length of newly drifting roadway in China, in recent years
Controlling floor heave plays a crucial role in the stability of mining roadways that is pivotal to transportation, ventilation, and other essential services for sustainable, safe, and highly efficient development of coal resources in underground coal mines [10,11,12]
Controlling floor heave plays an important role in the stability of mining roadways that is pivotal to the sustainable, safe, and efficient development of coal resources in underground coal mines
Summary
The length of mining roadways exceeds 8000 km, which accounts for 80% of the total length of newly drifting roadway in China, in recent years. Floor beam layout using grooving, full-length grouting, and suitable reinforced support countermeasures for the key zone (for instance, two corners on the floor) are proposed to reduce the deformation of the floor heave [18,19,20]. Through such methods, the severe floor heave can be effectively reduced. Further investigation is required to understand the failure patterns of the surrounding rock and the stress state of the rock bolt support reinforcing the roof and sidewalls. Numerical and physical simulations were conducted to analyze the stress state and the laws of fractures development of surrounding rock resulting from reinforcing the roof and sidewalls.
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