Experimental Study of Coal and Gas Outbursts Related to Gas-Enriched Areas

A coal and gas outburst can lead to a catastrophic failure in a coal mine. These outbursts usually occur where the distribution of coal seam gas is abnormal, commonly in tectonic belts. To study the effects of the abnormal distribution of this gas on outbursts, an experimental apparatus to collect data on simulated coal seam outbursts was constructed. Experiments on specimens containing discrete gas-enriched areas were run to induce artificial gas outbursts and further study of these outbursts using data from the experiment was conducted. The results suggest that more gas and outburst energy are contained in gas-enriched areas and this permits these areas to cause an outburst easily, even though the gas pressure in them is lower. During mining, the disappearance of the sealing effect of a coal pillar establishes the occurrence conditions for an outburst. When the enriched gas and outburst energy in the gas-enriched area is released suddenly, a reverse unloading wave and a high gas pressure gradient are formed, which have tension effects on the coal. Under these effects, the fragmentation degree of the coal intensifies and the intensity of the outburst increases. Because a high gas pressure gradient is maintained near the exposed surface and the enriched energy release reduces the coal strength, the existence of a gas-enriched area in coal leads to a faster outburst and the average thickness of the spall is smaller than where is no gas-enriched area.