Nonlinear relationships between coalbed methane release, natural methane content and kinematic parameters of cutting picks of shearers

Abstract

It has been found that the rated and actual data on methane emission in production headings in some Kuzbass mines disagree. The air and gas control shows that actual methane emission from broken coal is much less than the rated data when a coal shearer has high advance velocity and production output. The authors demonstrate the connection between an average diameter of broken coal fragment, shearer advance velocity and drum rotation speed using Darcy’s law of flow and Langmuir’s adsorption equation. It is found that methane emission from broken coal and natural coalbed methane content relate nonlinearly and that the relationship of absolute methane emission, shear advance velocity and production output has an extremum.