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• Four typical coal gangue stacking modes were selected to study. • Self-heating degree of the coal gangue models was measured. • Loess isolation and stratified stacking can suppress self-heating process. Coal gangue is a solid waste material which is generated during coal mining processes. Due to its low utilization value, it is normally discarded on gangue fields where it is stacked into very large hill formations. Spontaneous combustion is one of the major hazards which frequently occur during the long-term stacking of coal gangue. This study targeted the coal gangue stacks of the Chengzhuang Coal Mine, located in China's Shanxi Province. The results of programmed heating tests helped determine that CO and C 2 H 4 could be used as the index gases in the predictions of the self-heating degrees of coal gangue. Four of the typical coal gangue stacking modes which were often adopted by the Chengzhuang Mine were selected as the experimental objects of this study. The corresponding coal gangue models were piled in a field, and the self-heating degrees were measured with the passage of time. The entire experiment lasted for 60 days. The results showed that the loess isolation and loess stratified stacking methods could effectively suppress the self-heating processes. Also, the CO production and O 2 consumption of the coal gangue were consequently reduced. The study also indicated that in the loess stratified stacking, the inhibitory effects on the spontaneous combustion of the coal gangue had increased with the increased thicknesses of the loess layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]