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Since most coalfields in China are commonly characterized by high gas content and low permeability, there is an urgent need to improve coal seam permeability and further enhance coal bed methane (CBM) extraction efficiency. As an emerging fracturing technology, the CO2 gas fracturing (CGF) technology has been widely used because of its advantages of low cost, environmental protection and high fragmentation efficiency. In order to improve the fracturing ability of CGF technique and optimize the release orifices of discharge head, computational fluid dynamics model was used in this paper to simulate the flow fields of dynamic pressure of gas jet released from the orifices with different structures and other geometrical parameters. The results show that the orifice structure has a great influence on the flow field of gas jet, but little influence on the magnitude of the dynamic pressure. Besides, the maximum dynamic pressure of gas jet linearly decreases with the increase in the number of release orifices. Based on a series of simulation results, the discharge head which has single group of orifices with structure c, diameter of 24 mm can be identified as the best choice for fieldwork. Then, two field experiments were conducted in Pingdingshan and Changping coal mines to evaluate the enhanced CBM extraction efficiency by CGF. The results indicate that the CGF can effectively create a large number of cracks in a large range around the fracturing borehole in the coal seam and further significantly improve the permeability. And the CBM extraction efficiency can be improved to a higher level from a lower level and maintained for a long time. Besides, the effective influence radii caused by CGF in Pingdingshan and Changping coal mines are 15.19 m and 12.5 m, respectively. Compared with other fracturing techniques, the CGF technique has a promising application prospect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, the water jet technique has been more frequently used for coal bed methane stimulation. As the ultimate component of the water jet system, the nozzle has important influence on the rock breaking ability of water jet. To optimize the nozzle, a simplified model for impinging water jet was established. The effects of geometric structure (cylindrical, conical, and conical‐straight) and parameters (outlet diameter d, conical angle α, and length L) on the flow field of the impinging water jet are simulated through computational fluid dynamics software Fluent14.0. Besides, the effects of inlet pressure (Pin) and target distances (S) on the jet dynamics are also discussed based on the simulation results. The results show that the jet dynamic parameters including dynamic pressure, velocity, and impinging pressure vary with different nozzles. The jet dynamic parameters linearly increase with the inlet pressure, while they first increase then decrease with the increase in target distance. Additionally, the optimal nozzle designed based on the numerical simulation was used in the field test, and the results indicate that this technique can effectively improve the gas drainage efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]