Search

Gas disasters are a major factor influencing safe production in mines: Gas extraction can reduce the gas content in coal seams, providing a guarantee of safer production. The parameters for gas extraction are the primary factors influencing the effectiveness thereof. Aiming at the creep properties of soft coal, a fluid‐solid coupling mathematical model considering creep properties of coal was established based on dynamic evolution equation for permeability considering the effects of matrix shrinkage and effective stress. Additionally, by utilizing COMSOL Multiphysics software, the gas extractions from a single borehole and multiple boreholes were calculated. Moreover, the parameters for gas extraction were optimized and applied and tested in field conditions. The result showed the reduction in gas pressure around the boreholes was larger than that from a single borehole when conducting gas extraction from multiple boreholes. The borehole spacing when extracting gas in coal seams by drilling multiple boreholes should be more than twice that of the effective drainage radius. The optimal borehole spacing ranged from 3.2 to 4.2 m for gas extraction lasting 180 d. Numerical simulation was carried out to ascertain the distribution of stress on coal around a roadway. The result revealed that the damage radius of the roadway was 11.8 m, and a reasonable hole‐sealing depth was 12 m. On condition that the borehole spacing during gas extraction from multiple boreholes was 4 m, the reasonable pre‐extraction time was 180 days taking the gas pressure being reduced to <0.74 MPa as a critical point. Furthermore, the gas content, the amount of extracted gas, etc, in a working face after the parameters for gas extraction were optimized were measured. The result suggested that the effect of gas extraction after optimizing parameters conformed to industry standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydraulic fracturing can evidently improve the coalbed methane production in underground coal mines, but it is difficult to delimit the stimulated area accurately. In order to evaluate the stimulated area, microseismic (MS) monitoring technique is proposed to investigate the seismic responses of the induced fractures of hydraulic fracturing. Three coal seams were targeted to be treated in a coal mine. An array of geophones was set along the underground roadway to detect the MS signals caused by HF. In order to verify the result of MS monitoring, water content of each coal seam has been measured before and after HF treatment. The results showed that a series of MS events were detected during the entire HF process, and a sharp MS event usually occurred during the first hour of HF process. The energy of the sharp MS event had higher magnitude than others. The MS distribution exhibited complex morphological features. The directionless MS response was distributed over a radius of less than 40 m but tended to be significantly conjugated with a radius of more than 40 m. HF could stimulate both the coal seam and the rock layers nearby. The achievable stimulated area in the coal seam was determined to be 50 m × 50 m according to the MS density and water content. The stimulated area in terms of MS density was easily found to be broader than the area of water direct intrusion. The present study indicated that MS monitoring technique could potentially be used for evaluation of HF in underground coal mine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]