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Coal mine safety production management is always essential for economic and social security and stability, analyzing and exploring the causes of coal mine accidents and the intrinsic correlation between various factors can effectively realize the control and containment of coal mine accidents. Existing research on cause analysis and risk assessment in the coal mine field mostly depends on a limited number of experts rather than data. This study uses text mining methods to extract historical coal mine accident information and integrates DEMATEL, ISM, and MICMAC methods to analyze coal mine safety accidents in a data-driven manner. This paper analyzes the fundamental, direct, and key factors of coal mine accident risk, reveals the causal relationship of accidents, and proposes relevant prevention and control measures based on the characteristics of each factor. The research results show that the data-driven risk analysis model can eliminate traditional methods' dependence on experts and provide theoretical references for preventing coal mine accidents.

ObjectivesMethodsResultsConclusionCoal mine accidents seriously affect China’s coal safety production and sustainable development. The present study aimed to reveal the risk factors in coal mine accidents and explore the causal relationship among risk factors.This study utilized text mining to analyse 450 coal mine accident reports, identifying 50 risk factors and efficiently mapping them into the 24Model. The association rule algorithm was then used to mine the strong association rules among the risk factors within the 24Model, establishing the interaction mechanism among them. Based on the strong association rules, related hypotheses were proposed. Finally, the hierarchical and logical relationships of risk factors within the 24Model were analysed, and the causal and mediating effects were tested by path analysis.The safety management system has a direct effect on unsafe acts, unsafe conditions, habitual behaviour and organizational safety culture. Moreover, external influence has an effect on unsafe acts, organizational safety culture and habitual behaviour through the mediating effect of the safety management system.Based on the results obtained, this study proposes a series of specific measures to prevent risks in coal mines, providing a new perspective for the analysis and prevention of accidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The occurrence of major accidents such as water inrush in coal mines and coal-gas outbursts is closely correlated with the unclear exploration of underground geological structures. Seismic exploration in underground coal mines is not limited by ground conditions and close to the detected target, so it has advantages with respect to the detection of underground geological structures. However, the geological structures leading to accidents are usually characterized by small size and diverse combinations, making it difficult to detect. In coal mine working faces, the use of transmission observation systems, combined with full waveform inversion methods, represents a new attempt at finely detecting geological structures. Therefore, a three-dimensional numerical model of an abnormal combination of faults and collapse columns was established, a physical simulation model of a multi-collapse column combination was built, and transmission and detection experiments were carried out. The results show that the morphology and locations of 1 fault and 4 collapse columns obtained by the FWI algorithm are consistent with the data from the actual numerical model. According to physical simulation results, the background velocity of the model after inversions and the velocity of 5 anomalies are consistent with the actual values. Field experiments were conducted in the actual underground coal mines. After verification, the average error ratios of the long axis, short axis and intersection angle of the 4 collapse columns were 0.19, 0.15 and 0.02. The detection findings and comparison results confirm the feasibility of precise detection of geological structures by transmissive seismic waves based on the FWI method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This study investigates the correlation between previous coal mine safety policies and accidents in China. Data on coal mine accidents and government regulatory information from 2008 to 2021 are collected. The characteristics of coal mine accidents are analyzed, and safety policy indexes are identified. An ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model is established to quantitatively analyze the correlation between accidents and safety policy. The study finds that safety policies have some impact on accident occurrence in coal mines. Although there has been a decrease in accidents and deaths over time, higher mortality rates are observed during periods of increased production intensity and on weekends. Gas accidents are the most common, followed by roof and flood accidents. The study concludes that national safety policies with wider coverage and a stronger system are effective in preventing accidents, but caution should be exercised to avoid reduced vigilance with decreasing death rates.

This study investigates the correlation between previous coal mine safety policies and accidents in China. Data on coal mine accidents and government regulatory information from 2008 to 2021 are collected. The characteristics of coal mine accidents are analyzed, and safety policy indexes are identified. An ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model is established to quantitatively analyze the correlation between accidents and safety policy. The study finds that safety policies have some impact on accident occurrence in coal mines. Although there has been a decrease in accidents and deaths over time, higher mortality rates are observed during periods of increased production intensity and on weekends. Gas accidents are the most common, followed by roof and flood accidents. The study concludes that national safety policies with wider coverage and a stronger system are effective in preventing accidents, but caution should be exercised to avoid reduced vigilance with decreasing death rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In the coal mine emergency rescue auxiliary decision system, there are problems such as insufficient application of emergency plans, low application efficiency, and poor execution of rescue plans generated by the system. In order to solve the above problems, a design method for a coal mine emergency rescue auxiliary decision system based on emergency plans is proposed. This method uses information extraction technology based on large language models to extract key task elements from emergency plans, such as task names, triggering conditions, executing departments, and task content. This method forms meta tasks, and constructs a meta task library that classifies and stores meta tasks based on accident types and levels. When a coal mine safety accident occurs, this method uses semantic matching technology based on the SBERT model to classify and grade the accident based on the information collected on site. The method selects the meta task set that matches the current emergency needs from the meta task library. To improve the feasibility of tasks, this method combines meta tasks with real-time collected on-site data, constructs specific action instructions through instruction templates. The method uses task planning techniques to optimize and adjust the priority of instructions, and generate practical and feasible on-site rescue plans. The coal mine emergency rescue auxiliary decision system based on emergency plans fully utilizes the standardized content of emergency plans, forming a rescue plan closely integrated with on-site information and resource optimization. The system further improves the accuracy, scientificity, and intelligence level of rescue decision-making.

Abstract In the process of green and smart mine construction under the context of carbon neutrality, China's coal safety situation has been continuously improved in recent years. In order to recognize the development of coal production in China and prepare for future monitoring and prevention of safety incidents, this study mainly elaborated on the basic situation of coal resources and national mining accidents over the past five years (2017–2021), from four dimensions (accident level, type, region, and time), and then proposed the preventive measures based on accident statistical laws. The results show that the storage of coal resources has obvious geographic characteristics, mainly concentrated in the Midwest, with coal resources in Shanxi and Shaanxi accounting for about 49.4%. The proportion of coal consumption has dropped from 70.2% to 56% between 2011 and 2021, but still accounts for more than half of the all. Meanwhile, the accident-prone areas are positively correlated with the amount of coal production. Among different levels of coal mine accidents, general accidents had the highest number of accidents and deaths, with 692 accidents and 783 deaths, accounting for 87.6% and 54.64% respectively. The frequency of roof, gas, and transportation accidents is relatively high, and the number of single fatalities caused by gas accidents is the largest, about 4.18. In terms of geographical distribution of accidents, the safety situation in Shanxi Province is the most severe. From the time distribution of coal mine accidents, the accidents mainly occurred in July and August, and rarely occurred in February and December. Finally, the "4 + 4" safety management model is proposed, combining the statistical results with coal production in China. Based on the existing health and safety management systems, the managements are divided into four sub-categories, and more specific measures are suggested.

In the process of green and smart mine construction under the context of carbon neutrality, China's coal safety situation has been continuously improved in recent years. In order to recognize the development of coal production in China and prepare for future monitoring and prevention of safety incidents, this study mainly elaborated on the basic situation of coal resources and national mining accidents over the past five years (2017–2021), from four dimensions (accident level, type, region, and time), and then proposed the preventive measures based on accident statistical laws. The results show that the storage of coal resources has obvious geographic characteristics, mainly concentrated in the Midwest, with coal resources in Shanxi and Shaanxi accounting for about 49.4%. The proportion of coal consumption has dropped from 70.2% to 56% between 2011 and 2021, but still accounts for more than half of the all. Meanwhile, the accident-prone areas are positively correlated with the amount of coal production. Among different levels of coal mine accidents, general accidents had the highest number of accidents and deaths, with 692 accidents and 783 deaths, accounting for 87.6% and 54.64% respectively. The frequency of roof, gas, and transportation accidents is relatively high, and the number of single fatalities caused by gas accidents is the largest, about 4.18. In terms of geographical distribution of accidents, the safety situation in Shanxi Province is the most severe. From the time distribution of coal mine accidents, the accidents mainly occurred in July and August, and rarely occurred in February and December. Finally, the "4 + 4" safety management model is proposed, combining the statistical results with coal production in China. Based on the existing health and safety management systems, the managements are divided into four sub-categories, and more specific measures are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the PVAR model and taking the data of 10 major coal provinces in China from 2011 to 2020 as an example, the dynamic relationship between coal mine accidents, environmental regulation and economic development is analyzed at the provincial level. Research findings include: (1) From the static relationship between coal mine accidents, environmental regulation and economic development in China's ten major coal provinces, coal mine accidents promote environmental regulation; environmental regulation inhibits coal mine accidents; economic development strongly promotes environmental regulation; environmental regulation has a weak inhibitory effect on economic development; coal mine accidents slightly inhibit economic development; economic development strongly inhibits coal mine accidents. (2) From the dynamic relationship between coal mine accidents, environmental regulation and economic development in China's ten major coal provinces, there is a strong dynamic response relationship between environmental regulation and coal mine accidents. The impact of environmental regulation on coal mine accidents shows a decreasing volatility trend, and the impact of coal mine accidents on environmental regulation shows a rising volatility trend. There is a short-term positive interaction between economic development and environmental regulation, but the interaction response relationship between them decreases with time. Economic development has a long-term inhibitory effect on coal mine accidents, while the negative impact of coal mine accidents on economic development has gradually decreased to 0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal mine safety issues are of great significance for companies and employees. As China is engaged in coal production, we use coal mine accidents data source from the State Administrative of Work Safety of China for 2001-2017. The results indicate that the total number and frequency of coal mine accidents decreased sharply from 2003 and 2008, and the decreasing trend kept from 2008 to 2017. This is related to administrative measures resulting in shutdown of small and middle-size coal mines. in terms of the number of major accidents, Shanxi province ranked the first among the 25 provinces considered with Guizhou, Hunan, Heilongjiang, Sichuan, Chongqing, Henan, Jilin following the suit. We also check the (weekly) calendar effect of death cases and accident numbers of particularly serious accident. The results indicate that the weeks 8, 45, and 47 show significantly lower numbers of death cases. We analyze the regional differences in the nature of the coal mine accidents. Finally, the policy guidelines for safer coal mine operation are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The risk factors affecting workers' unsafe acts were comprehensively identified by Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) and grounded theory based on interview data and accident reports from deep coal mines. Firstly, we collected accident case and field interview data from deep coal mines issued by authoritative institutions. Then, the data were coded according to grounded theory to obtain relevant concepts and types. The HFACS model was used to classify the concepts and categories. Finally, the relationship between core and secondary categories was sorted out by applying a story plot. The results show that risk factors of unsafe acts of deep coal mine workers include environmental factors, organizational influence, unsafe supervision and unsafe state of miners, and the main manifestations of unsafe acts are errors and violations. Among them, the unsafe state of miners is the intermediate variable, and other factors indirectly affect risky actions of coal miners through unsafe sates. Resource management, organizational processes and failure to correct problems are the top three risk factors that occur more frequently in unsafe acts. The three most common types of unsafe act are unreasonable labor organization, failure to enforce rules, and inadequate technical specifications. By combining grounded theory and the HFACS framework to analyze data, risk factors for deep coal miners can be quickly identified, and more precise and comprehensive conceptual models of risk factors in unsafe acts of deep coal miners can be obtained.

Coal mine accidents pose a serious threat to miners and the surrounding environment. Despite a recent downward trend in the numbers of major accidents and casualties in Chinese coal mining enterprises, accident reoccurrence remains an on-going issue for the industry. This paper aims to identify the root causes, namely, the characteristics of safety culture deficiencies driving typical coal accidents. Using the accident analysis pathway of the 24Model and the logical thought of Why Because Analysis (WBA), 67 typical major accidents (gas explosion, gas outburst, flooding and fire) are analysed to identify the deficiencies in safety culture based on the determinations of the safety culture dimension and statistics of recurrent accident patterns. The related elements and occurrence frequencies of the deficiencies in safety culture can be inferred as follows: ignored safety laws and regulations (frequency is 100 %), unrealized safety priority (100 %), limited role of functional departments (86.6 %), and insufficient attention to safety education for special operation personnel and mining workers (80.6 %), among others. These characteristics are not concerned with accident types, and the most prominent characteristics are manifested in four aspects: unrealized safety priority, flaws in management actions towards safety, passive safety compliance and participation of employees, and imperfect work conditions. Specifically, we emphasize the role of departments, safety communication, safety participation and supervision climate in influencing and improving the safety culture to further reduce industrial accidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of problem that risk assessment for provincial coal mine lacks theory and method, a comprehensive risk assessment method for provincial coal mine accident was proposed: first of all, quantized value of damage extent and occurrence probability of risk indicators of coal mine accidents were assessed and scored by experts to construct comprehensive judgment matrix; then AHP was used to determine weight of each risk module; and finally, overall risk level of risk modules were calculated. The proposed method lays theoretical and practical basis for risk management of provincial coal mine accidents by generality research of risk assessment of regional coal mine accidents.

This article reports an investigation on the explosion characteristics of methane–coal dust hybrid mixtures in a ducted spherical vessel. Methane–coal dust hybrid mixture explosion can occur in coal mines and spread into mine tunnels. While investigating the effects of methane addition to coal dust–air mixtures, the violence of coal dust explosions was found to increase significantly in the presence of methane. The energy of ignition was found to impact on the pressure rises in the vessel and in the duct. The experimental data and scientific analysis presented can assist in addressing ducted explosions originating from hybrid mixtures in process industries such as coal mines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mining has been historically considered as a naturally high-risk industry worldwide. Deaths caused by coal mine accidents are more than the sum of all other accidents in China. Statistics of 320 coal mine accidents in Shandong province show that all accidents contain indicators of “unsafe conditions of the rules and regulations” with a frequency of 1590, accounting for 74.3% of the total frequency of 2140. “Unsafe behaviors of the operator” is another important contributory factor, which mainly includes “operator error” and “venturing into dangerous places.” A systems analysis approach was applied by using structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the interactions between the contributory factors of coal mine accidents. The analysis of results leads to three conclusions. (i) “Unsafe conditions of the rules and regulations,” affect the “unsafe behaviors of the operator,” “unsafe conditions of the equipment,” and “unsafe conditions of the environment.” (ii) The three influencing factors of coal mine accidents (with the frequency of effect relation in descending order) are “lack of safety education and training,” “rules and regulations of safety production responsibility,” and “rules and regulations of supervision and inspection.” (iii) The three influenced factors (with the frequency in descending order) of coal mine accidents are “venturing into dangerous places,” “poor workplace environment,” and “operator error.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of coal mining safety inspection in China, the different interests and influences of stakeholders and their complicated dynamic interactions make the coal mining safety laws and regulations less effective. Moreover, the existing literature on China’s coal mining safety inspection is short of research on revealling the dynamic interactions that can occur under the bounded rationality and also on proposals for effective interactions that will lead to improved safety outcomes. Therefore, this paper explores the use of evolutionary game theory to describe the interactions between the stakeholders in China’s coal mining safety inspection system, which includes the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety (SACMS), the Local Regulation Departments of Coal Mine Safety (LRDCMS), and coal enterprises. Moreover, the paper also explores dynamic simulations of the evolutionary game model to analyze the stability of stakeholder interactions and to identify equilibrium solutions. The simulation results show that the strategy selections of the three stakeholders fluctuate repeatedly, which indicates that the evolutionary stable strategy does not exist in the current interactions between the stakeholders. Therefore, the dynamic penalty control scenario and an optimized dynamic penalty-incentive control scenario were proposed to control the fluctuations and then simulated again. And the simulation results indicated that the dynamic penalty control scenario can effectively restrain the fluctuations and make stakeholder interactions more stable. Furthermore, the optimized dynamic penalty-incentive control scenario can not only restrain the fluctuations effectively but also present an ideal evolutionary stable strategy in which coal enterprises could nearly choose safety production as their optimal strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In crafting policies in the local setting, the study determines how the print media impacts legislation. It would point to the media as either an effective driver in policymaking or as a conduit to such. The researchers combed through the archives of three English newspapers in Cebu and the files of Cebu Provincial Board to substantiate the relation of the coal mine accidents to approved legislation. The study, however, is limited to four incidents that occurred for the years 2005 to 2012. The researchers then compared the newspaper archives with the approved legislation and assessed that print media only has a marginal effect as a conduit and none as a contributor to policy legislation. At the brim of coal mine accidents, policy makers respond immediately to issues which are repeatedly played over in the media and deemed by the researchers as typical for it is a precept that certain governing legislative bodies would often pay attention to certain recurring issues in the newspaper that may affect their image.