Modelling and analysis of unsafe acts in coal mine gas explosion accidents based on network theory

Abstract

Coal mine accident prevention is a key issue affecting the safety of coal production in China. From accident analysis, it has been found that the interaction of unsafe acts of coal miners is the main cause of catastrophic accidents, and that ignoring the interrelationship between behaviors may lead to missing hidden chains of incidents as well as to a gross underestimation of behavioral risk. Therefore, to solve the above problems, it is of significant practical importance to explore unsafe acts in accidents as a collection and to analyse their evolution and development trends. The purpose of this study is to analyse the interrelationships and potential behavior patterns among unsafe acts in coal mine gas explosion accidents from the perspective of network modelling and to propose a modelling method for the mine accident unsafe acts network (MAUAN). First, by mining the causes in 86 gas explosion accident reports, a MAUAN network composed of 95 unsafe-act nodes and 681 edges was determined. Second, by calculating the topology of the MAUAN, 3 key unsafe acts and 6 key behavior paths in the gas explosion accidents were determined. The research results show that 91% of unsafe acts in gas explosion accidents were violations. The lack of safety education and skills training for miners is the most influential unsafe act in gas explosion accidents, and the absence of operating procedures or prevention measures → failure to check gas concentration → risky operation without safety safeguards was the most critical link leading to the occurrence of gas accidents. Third, illegal mining practices have become another urgent problem today—in addition to gas accumulation and ignition source generation—with 83% of gas explosion accidents involving illegal mining. This study provides a reference for accident causation modelling and the identification of key causal factors from accident report data, and the results of the analysis provide a basis for decision making in coal mine accident prevention efforts to reduce future mining accidents.