In deep mines, two urgent problems are a high temperature thermal environment and solid waste. Filling the goaf with slurry mixed with ice grains is an effective way to solve these two problems simultaneously. The thermal property and mechanical property of the ice-added backfill have a great influence on the cooling effect in the deep mine. In this study, an experimental facility for measuring the temperature distribution of ice-added backfill slurry was established, and the temperature of backfill slurry with different proportions was measured. Then, the thermal properties of temperature distribution and cooling capacity and the mechanical property of uniaxial compressive strength of the backfill specimens were analyzed, and the results indicated the following: firstly, the cooling capacity of ice-added backfill specimens is negatively related with the slurry concentration C and is positively related with the ice-water ratio Ω; secondly, the strength of backfill specimens is affected by the slurry concentration C and ice-water ratio Ω by a contrary law compared to the cooling capacity; thirdly, ice-added backfill slurry with an ice-water ratio Ω of 1:1 has the best mechanical property after solidification. The effects of the slurry concentration and ice-water ratio on the thermal and mechanical properties were analyzed, and the results indicated that the optimum proportion of ice-added backfill slurry is a slurry concentration of 74% and an ice-water ratio of 1:1 in the present research range. This study is significant for the deep mine cooling method with ice-added backfill.

In view of high ground stress, high geothermal temperature, and thermal hazard during deep mineral resource exploitation, the concept of phase-change heat storage backfill was put forward in this study. Further, the corresponding technical system was constructed and the main content involved in technical system, which is the optimized proportion of the backfill slurry added with phase-change materials (PCMs), was examined. Moreover, we elaborated upon the collaborative optimization of a backfill body’s mechanical and thermal properties and the mutual cooperation on backfill mining, geothermal energy exploitation, and simultaneous stope cooling. The heat transfer behavior of a backfill body plays a key role in technology system. We numerically simulated the heat transfer among a backfill body, surrounding rock, and airflow in the heat storage process, as well as the heat transfer between backfill body and cold fluid during the heat release process. The temperature distribution of a backfill body at different heat storage/heat release times—i.e., the temperature distribution and its evolution—with heat transfer were revealed and analyzed. This study can provide theoretical guidance for a phase-change heat storage backfill, as it has an important significance for the collaborative exploitation of mineral resources and geothermal energy.

A sensitivity study was conducted for three typical expander-based transcritical CO₂ cycles with the developed simulation model, and the sensitivities of the maximum coefficient of performance (COP) to the key operating parameters, including the inlet pressure of gas cooler, the temperatures at evaporator inlet and gas cooler outlet, the inter-stage pressure and the isentropic efficiency of expander, were obtained. The results showed that the sensitivity to the gas cooler inlet pressure differs greatly before and after the optimal gas cooler inlet pressure. The sensitivity to the intercooler outlet temperature in the two-stage cycles increases sharply to near zero and then keeps almost constant at intercooler outlet temperature of higher than 45 °C. However, the sensitivity stabilizes near zero when the evaporator inlet temperature is very low of −26.1 °C. In two-stage compression with an intercooler and an expander assisting in driving the first-stage compressor (TEADFC) cycle, an abrupt change in the sensitivity of maximum COP to the inter-stage pressure was observed, but disappeared after intercooler outlet temperature exceeds 50 °C. The sensitivity of maximum COP to the expander isentropic efficiency increases almost linearly with the expander isentropic efficiency.

Deep mining results in an increasingly serious hazard. Based on the principle of heat transfer and radiant cooling, a three-dimensional heat transfer model of the working face was established. The influence of the inlet airflow parameter, the surrounding wall temperature and other parameters on the temperature distribution of airflow along the working face were analyzed under the radiation cooling mode. The results show that the increment of airflow temperature in several sections along the working face decreases by 0.67 °C, 0.48 °C, 0.40 °C, 0.36 °C, 0.33 °C, 0.29 °C respectively. The farther away from the airflow inlet, the more obvious the cooling effect was. The airflow temperature of the working face is positively correlated with the airflow inlet temperature and the surrounding wall temperature, and is negatively correlated with the airflow velocity. The research provides a good solution for the working face cooling of deep mines, and also provides a theoretical reference for the research on the radiation cooling technology of the working face.

Based on phase-change heat storage backfill, paraffin microcapsules were selected as the phase change material and were directly mixed with backfill materials for preparing backfill specimens. The mechanical and thermal properties of specimens with different paraffin percentages and slurry concentrations were tested and analyzed. The results show that compressive strength gradually decreases with an increasing paraffin percentage while it significantly increases with increasing slurry concentration, thermal conductivity decreases with increasing paraffin percentage and specific heat capacity increases with an increasing paraffin percentage and slurry concentration. For a paraffin percentage from 0% to 10%, compressive strength decreases by an average of 22.5%, thermal conductivity decreases by an average of 43.8% and specific heat capacity increases by an average of 8.7% at a phase-change temperature of 30 °C. For a slurry concentration from 68% to 72%, compressive strength increases by an average of 4.12 times, and specific heat capacity increases by an average of 3.5% at a phase-change temperature of 30 °C. The weakening effect of phase-change materials on compressive strength can be effectively improved by the increase of slurry concentration, and the increases of paraffin percentage and slurry concentration can both improve the sensible heat storage capacity of backfill materials.