As one of the most common disasters in deep mine roadway, floor heave has caused serious obstacles to mine transportation and normal production activities. The third section winch roadway in the third mining area of Qitaihe Longhu coal mine has a serious floor heave due to the large buried depths of the roadway and the semicoal rock roadway, and the maximum floor heave is 750 mm. For the problem of floor stability, this paper establishes a mechanical model to analyze the stability of roadway floor heave by analogy with the basement heave of deep foundation pit. It provides a model reference for analyzing the problem of roadway floor heave. Aiming at the problem of roadway floor heave in Longhu coal mine, the roadway model is established by using FLAC3D, and the roadway model after support is established according to the on-site support measures. Through the analysis of the distribution of roadway plastic area, stress nephogram, and displacement field simulation results, the results show that the maximum displacement of roadway roof and floor after support is reduced by 15% and 23%, but the maximum floor heave is still 770 mm, which is close to the measured floor heave of roadway. In order to solve the problem of roadway floor heave and integrate economic factors, this paper puts forward three support optimization schemes, simulates the support effect of each scheme, and finally determines that scheme 3 is the best support optimization scheme. Compared with that under the original support, the amount of floor heave is reduced by 81%, and the final amount of floor heave is 150 mm, which can meet the requirements of roadway floor deformation. The results provide a scheme and guidance for roadway support optimization.

Surrounding rock control and support stability in the process of coal seam mining in ultra-large height mining face are the key to normal mine operation. In this study, the roof movement and deformation of an ultra-large height mining face are analyzed, and the working resistance of the ultra-large height mining face is obtained by introducing the equivalent immediate roof. By analyzing the coal wall spalling, the multiple positions of the spalling and the required support force of the support are obtained. At the same time, ultra-large height supports are more prone to instability problems. In this study, the stability of the ultra-large height supports was analyzed by establishing a mechanical model. The results show that: 1. The overturning limit angle of support has a hyperbolic relationship with the center of gravity. 2. Under the condition of ultra-large height, the increase in the base width of the bracket significantly improves the stability of the supports. 3. The sliding limit angle of support is positively correlated with the support load and the friction coefficient between the support and the floor. The above conclusions can provide guidance on the selection of supports and the adoption of measures to enhance the stability of the supports during use under ultra-large height conditions. The working resistance of the ultra-large height supports in the 108 mining face of the Jinjitan Coal Mine was monitored. The monitoring results show that: The average resistance of the supports is 22.6 MPa. The selected supports can meet the stability requirements of the working face support. The frequency of mining resistance in 0~5 MPa accounts for 28.38%, which indicates that some supports are insufficient for the initial support force during the moving process. Furthermore, the stability of the supports can be enhanced by adjusting the moving process. This study provides a reference for the selection of supports in ultra-large height mining faces and proposes measures to enhance the stability of the supports, which provides guidance for the safe mining of coal in ultra-large height mining faces.

The mechanical parameters of surrounding rock are an essential basis for roadway excavation and support design. Aiming at the difficulty in obtaining the mechanical parameters of surrounding rock and large experimental errors, the optimized BP neural network model is proposed in this paper. The mind evolutionary algorithm can adequately search the optimal initial weights and thresholds, while the neural network has the advantage of strong nonlinear prediction ability. So, the optimized BP neural network model (MEA-BP model) takes advantage of the two models. It can not only avoid the local extreme value problem but also improve the accuracy and reliability of the prediction results. Based on the orthogonal test method and finite element analysis method, training samples and test samples are established. The nonlinear relationship between rock mechanical parameters and roadway deformation is established by the BP model and MEA-BP model, respectively. The importance analysis of the three input variables shows that the ∆D is the most important input variable, while ∆BC has the smallest impact. The comparison of prediction performance between the MEA-BP model and BP model demonstrates that the optimized initial weights and thresholds can improve the accuracy of prediction value. Finally, the MEA-BP model has been well applied to predicting the mechanical parameter for the surrounding rock in the Pingdingshan mine area, which proves the accuracy and reliability of the optimized model.

Flue-gas desulphurisation gypsum—a solid waste from power plants—can be used to prepare paste backfill for reducing costs. Most paste backfills are exposed to dry–wet cycles and chloride salt-rich water in mines. Therefore, the mechanical properties and damage mechanisms of paste backfill with desulphurised gypsum under the coupling action of erosion due to chloride with different concentrations and dry–wet cycles were investigated using methods such as visual observation, mass measurement, uniaxial compression, acoustic emission, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, and field-emission scanning electron microscopy. With an increasing number of dry–wet cycles, the mass, elastic modulus, and strength of the paste backfill exhibited the trend of increasing first and then decreasing. The failure mechanism changed from mainly vertical fractures to the alternating development of vertical and horizontal fractures. The surface denudation effect of the specimens in a solution with a higher concentration was more severe under the same number of dry–wet cycles. In this study, the laws governing the mass change, strength change, degree of surface denudation, and failure pattern of desulphurised gypsum-filled specimens under different concentrations of chloride salt and different numbers of dry–wet cycles were derived.

The rheological stress recovery (RSR) method was proposed to obtain measurements of in-situ stress. Rock stress can be evaluated by monitoring the recovery process of stress sensors embedded in rock mass. In order to achieve this application, a novel stress sensor employing the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) technique was designed and manufactured. This stress sensor consisted of three parts: A sensing spherical head, connecting rod, and coupler box. In the sensing spherical head, six independent pressure sensing units were assembled together with a temperature compensation unit. In addition, wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology was adopted to ensure that only one fiber splice for each stress sensor is output. The fiber splicing of the sensing units was assembled in the coupler box. The transformation equations from the six pressure sensing units to the stress sensor were established. Furthermore, a calibrating device for the stress sensor was designed, and the general calibration and long-term stability tests were carried out to investigate the characteristic indexes (maximum range, full-range output, and sensitivity) and measurement error (zero drift index, hysteresis index, and repeatability index). Measurement errors showed that the degrees of linearity, zero drift, hysteresis, and repeatability were all below 1.5%. The stability test indicated that the creep of the stress sensor can gradually stabilize in 24 days, and the errors were less than 1.5%. As a result, the stress sensor developed here satisfies the requirements for the RSR method and can be used in field.

To address the challenge of achieving precise real-time monitoring of significant deformation in deep roadway surrounding rock, a quasi-distributed strain-sensing cable (SSC), which has a spatial resolution of 1 m, was developed based on the principle of Identical Weak Fiber Bragg Gratings. The performance of SSC has been evaluated through a series of calibration tests, revealing a range of 0%–3%, an accuracy level of 0.5%, a strain sensitivity measuring at 1.23 pm/με, and a temperature sensitivity recorded as 10.78 pm/℃. Furthermore, a real-time deformation monitoring system has been established to monitor rock deformation, consisting of SSC, supporting installation equipment, demodulation equipment, and monitoring software. Moreover, the proposed methodology was applied in the deep roadway of Guqiao coal mine. The results showed that the maximum surface displacement of the roadway is 103.47 mm, while the lateral contrast error stands at 5%. The maximum strain value of the surrounding rock measures 27,095 με. The depth of rock rupture zone is about 3 m, while the boundary of rock damage zone extends up to 6 m. This information serves as the foundation for determining the parameters of the roadway reinforcement support design.