Physical simulation of mining effect caused by a fault tectonic

Abstract

Due to faults occurring universally and being harmful to coal production, the study of mining effects on faults is significant for predicting rock bursts in coalmines. In this paper, a physical simulation test is conducted, which can intuitively recreate the macroscopic movement of overlying strata. Then, mining effects on fault activation slipping and the responses of abutment stress of coal body and fault plane are studied. The results demonstrate that fault activates and aggravates gradually prior to passing, which leads to abutment stress in the footwall coal rise. This causes the footwall strata to move, and this displacement is large. After just passing the fault, the hanging wall strata slip along the fault plane, which can lead to increasing abutment stress of the hanging wall coal; however, the hanging wall strata move slightly, and this displacement is relatively small. Hence, the fault can be activated and slip prominently in a fault-affected zone, thereby easily inducing rock bursts. Finally, a field case regarding microseismic monitoring is used to verify the simulation results; these can serve as a reference for predicting rock bursts and their classification into hazardous areas under similar conditions.