Blasting has been widely used in coal mining as a method of reducing the integrity of rock mass. Its low controllability often leads to the unsatisfactory fragmentation effect of rock mass. The empty borehole effect has great significance in avoiding the excessive breakage of rock mass and guiding the directional propagation of blasting-induced fractures. Nevertheless, the rock mass damage type evolution induced by the empty borehole has been rarely studied. A tension–compression constitutive model of rock mass damage is established in this paper. The model is incorporated into the numerical modeling code LS-DYNA as a user-defined material model. Then, LS-DYNA is used to investigate the evolution mechanism of rock mass damage under the empty borehole effect. The damage types of rock mass caused by the empty borehole effect are also studied. The Fortran language is utilized to monitor the number variation of the tensile damaged elements and the compressive damaged elements in the rock mass around the empty borehole. The results indicate that existence of the empty borehole significantly enhances the tensile stress and the stress concentration factor in the rock mass nearby the empty borehole. Meanwhile, the rock mass nearby the empty borehole mainly damages in tension. Both the number of the tensile damaged elements and the tensile stresses in the elements increases as the empty borehole diameter increases. The number of the compressive damaged elements decreases with increasing empty borehole diameter.

As one of the five major coal mine disasters, the water inrush disaster poses a serious threat to the safety of the country and people, so the prevention work for that becomes very important. However, there is no perfect assessment system that can better solve the complex dependence relationships among disaster‐causing factors of water inrush disasters. This study applied the knowledge of Complex Networks to research water inrush disaster, and based on that, the early warning evaluation system that combined ANP and Cloud model was established in order to solve the complex dependence problem and prevent the occurrence of water inrush. Moreover, this evaluation model was applied to the example Y coal mine to verify its superiority and feasibility. The results showed that the main cloud of goal was located at the yellow‐strong warning level, and the first‐level indicators were, respectively, at that the yellow‐strong level of mining conditions, the yellow‐strong warning level of hydrological factors, between the yellow‐strong warning level and purple‐general level of the geological structure, and among the blue‐slightly weak warning level, purple‐general level, and yellow‐strong level of the human factor. The prediction results were consistent with the actual situation of the coal water inrush disaster in Y mine, which further proved that this early warning evaluation model is reliable. In response to the forecast results, the authors put forward relative improvements necessary to strengthen the prevention ability to disaster‐causing factors among hydrological factors, mining conditions, and geological structure, which should comprehensively increase knowledge, technology, and management of workers to avoid leaving out disaster‐causing factors. Meanwhile, the warning evaluation model also provides the relevant experience basis for other types of early warning assessment networks.

Deep horizontal high stress and high permeability geological factors appear when coal mines are converted to deep horizontal mining. When the roadway is damaged by the mining face, and the supporting components are mismatched, the deep roadways necessitate extensive repair work, which has a negative impact on the coal mining economy and sustainability. This paper carried out a series of field tests on the roadways deformation, crack distribution, and loose rock zone of the deep roadways. Furthermore, a numerical calculation model was established using the discrete element method (DEM) and calibrated with laboratory tests and RQD methods. Both the stress and crack distribution in the surrounding rock of the deep roadway were simulated. The field test and the corrected numerical model showed consistency. A FISH function was used to document the propagation of shear and tensile cracks around the roadway in three periods, and a damage parameter was adopted to evaluate the failure mechanism of the deep roadways under the dynamic stress disturbance. The matching of specifications of anchor cables, rock bolts, and anchoring agent is the primary point in the control of deep roadways, and revealing the stress evolution, crack propagation, and damage distribution caused by mining effects is another key point in deep roadway controlling. The field test and DEM in this paper provide a reference for the design of surrounding rock control of deep roadways and the sustainable development of coal mines.

The stability of large section open‐off cut in deep mines (LODM) is the key factor affecting the normal equipment installation and safe mining in fully mechanized top‐coal caving face. The mechanical model shows that the deflection of the roof of the LODM is proportional to the cubic of span. In this paper, UDEC Trigon model is established, and the parameters of different coal measures strata are modified in detail. The evolution law, failure mode, and damage degree of roof cracks in secondary tunneling are studied, and the roof support effect is analyzed. The numerical simulation results show that the process of roof crack evolution after the primary excavation section and the second excavation section can be divided into three stages according to microseismic activities, and the reasonable supporting time can control the propagation of roof microcracks and reduce the development height of macrocracks. The rock bridge existing in the roof rock stratum after the combined support of long and short anchor cables can effectively limit the formation of macrocracks and their interaction; especially the key support in the interface area can reduce the development height of roof cracks in secondary tunneling and weaken the damage degree of roof rock stratum in the LODM. The field test shows that the moved volume of rib‐to‐rib and roof‐to‐floor of the LODM is stable at about 350 mm and 550 mm, respectively. The numerical simulation in this paper is helpful to understand the failure mode of roof in LODM with large mining height and provides a method for the design of its control technologies.

Rock bolt support is an effective technique for controlling surrounding rock of deep roadway. The stability of the anchorage body composed of rock bolts and surrounding rock mass is the core in keeping the stability of roadways. In this paper, the UDEC Trigon model was used in simulating uniaxial compressive test on the anchorage body under different pretension loads. The energy equilibrium criterion of the anchorage body under the uniaxial compressive state was proposed. Furthermore, the fracture evolution and the energy dissipation during the failure process of the anchorage body were analyzed. Results showed that before the peak strength, the external work was stored in the anchorage body in the form of the elastic strain energy (U^e). After the peak, energy dissipated through three ways, including the fracture developing friction (W_f), plastic deformation (W_p), and acoustic emission (U^r). Based on the simulation results, the high pretensioned rock bolts can eliminate the continuous tensile fractures in the anchorage body, decreasing the damaging extent of the anchorage body and the energy that was consumed by the following two main approaches: fracture developing friction (W_f) and plastic deformation (W_p). Moreover, the surplus of the elastic strain energy (U^e) and the strength of the anchorage body can be improved. The pretension load had a positive relationship with elastic strain energy and a negative relationship with the anchorage body damage degree. Based on the above research, the transport roadway of the working face 6208 in the Wangzhuang Coal Mine selected tensile rock bolts to establish the high‐performance anchorage body. The monitoring data showed that this reinforcement method effectively managed the serious deformation issue of the roadway surrounding the rock masses.

The traditional backfill mining method is a technology developed by the general trend of green coal mining, but with a high cost and an impact on production efficiency. This paper proposes a structured backfill mining method with high-water materials and pillars. The evolution of roof pressure appearance is assessed through the sensor and monitoring system in the hydraulic support. The main roof fracture step distance is determined based on the roof structure characteristics of backfill mining, and the backfill step distance of underground structural backfill is 22.7 m considering the safety factor. Through the simulation results of Abaqus commercial simulation software, the roof subsidence evolution of different backfill schemes under temporary load and permanent load is compared, and the rationality of the backfill step distance is verified. Based on the probability integral method, the surface subsidence prediction model is proposed, then the final value and the maximum dynamic change value of the surface subsidence at the north and south ends of the interchange bridge by traditional mining and backfill mining are analyzed, which verifies the rationality of the structural backfill mining method.