Support technology faces challenges in view of the large deformation of surrounding rock in three-soft coal roadways under high horizontal stress in Zijin Coal Mine, China. Geostress near the tested working face of the mine was measured and its distribution law was analyzed through theoretical analysis, numerical simulation analysis, and field measurement. The original supporting scheme of the three-soft coal roadway on the tested working face was analyzed to discover the deformation and failure mechanism of the surrounding rock of the original supporting roadway and the control measures. An optimized support scheme of H-G (hollow grouting) anchor cables, high strength bolts, W-shaped steel belts, metal meshes, and sprayed concretes was proposed for field applications. Based on the roadway in the tested 3201 working face at Zijin Coal Mine, the technical parameters for optimizing the combined support of the roadway were determined. The following results were be obtained through field measurement. The roadway was kept intact after excavation and the optimized support scheme was adopted in the three-soft coal roadway. No obvious deformation in appearance existed in the roof, floor, and roadway coal sides. Compared with the original support scheme, the stability of the roadways was improved visibly. The displacement of the roadway roof decreased from 100 to 30 mm, and that of the roadway coal walls decreased from more than 100 mm to less than 50 mm. This work verifies the effectiveness of a combined support scheme of H-G anchor cables, high strength bolts, W-shaped steel belts, metal meshes, and sprayed concretes to control deformations of surrounding rock in three-soft coal roadways. The new support scheme has good social and economic benefits and can be used as a reference for other roadway supports under similar conditions.

Stress in rock masses is an important parameter in the design and construction of underground engineering, such as the design and maintenance of mine roadways and the design of mining working faces. It is also a fundamental force causing the deformation and failure of geotechnical engineering excavation. At present, the abutment-pressure monitoring technology of the surrounding rocks of the coal mine roadway in China is not intelligent and systematic and lacks some high-precision sensing instruments and multi-functional monitoring systems. The mechanical model of the rocks surrounding the borehole was constructed by theoretical analysis of problems in the stress monitoring technology for underground rock masses in coal mines. Additionally, the interaction between the surrounding rocks and the borehole stress meter was analyzed. The borehole stress meters for tubular-structure fiber Bragg grating (TS-FBG) and cystic-structure fiber Bragg grating (CS-FBG) were designed by combining the sensing principle and sensing characteristics of fiber Bragg grating, and the performance of the two kinds of fiber Bragg grating borehole stress meters was compared by laboratory test. The track roadway of the 14,301 tested working faces in the Shaqu Coal Mine was taken as an example, and the stress of the rocks surrounding the 14,301-track roadway was monitored in real time by CS-FBG borehole stress meter during the mining of the working face. The following conclusions are drawn from the field application. The rig-site utilization results revealed obvious stress growth and stress peak zones in the mining-stress change curves of each measuring point on the two sides of the 14,301-track roadway in the process of mining the tested working face. Additionally, there were four stages: rapid rise, uniform growth, rapid rise to the peak, and rapid decline. Maximum stress monitored by the second station was 18.5 MPa, and the influence range of stress was over 140 m. Maximum stress monitored by the first measuring station was 19 MPa, the influence range of stress was about 80 m, and the peak stress position was about 20 m in front of the coal wall. Rig-site utilization proved the design of the CS-FBG borehole stress meter to be reasonable. Performance was stable and reliable, and the successful operation of field monitoring achieved the expected effect.

There are more and more tunnel projects in the karst-developed areas in Southwest China. Affected by karst caves and water, karst tunnels often experience geological disasters such as local collapses and water inrush. A simplified rock stress hardening-softening model was established based on the triaxial compression test results of two kinds of carbonatite to accurately analyze the deformation and water inrush characteristics of the surrounding rocks after karst tunnel excavation. The total stress–strain curve of rocks was simplified into four linear stages: the linear elastic stage, strain hardening stage, strain-softening stage, and residual stage. The volumetric strain–axial strain curve was simplified into four corresponding linear stages: the elastic expansion stage, slow expansion stage, rapid expansion stage, and stable expansion stage. The stress hardening–softening model was used to deduce the relationship between the rocks’ mechanical parameters such as cohesion, internal friction angle, dilatancy angle, and plastic strain, as well as the relationship between seepage characteristic parameters such as permeability coefficient, porosity, and volumetric strain. A karst tunnel in Chongqing, China was taken as the engineering background. The stress hardening–softening constitutive model and seepage characteristic parameters were applied to the FLAC^3D numerical simulation by the programming language FISH to analyze the stability and water inrush characteristics of karst tunnels in overlying confining caves. The results showed that rock masses between the cave and tunnel were prone to overall sliding instability. Confined water in the karst cave intruded into the tunnel through the shear-slip rupture zone on both sides instead of the shortest path. Two water inrush points existed on the tunnel surface. The variation law of the permeability coefficients of the surrounding rocks could more truly reflect whether there was a seepage channel between the tunnel and karst cave, as well as the permeable area and water inrush speed of the seepage channel. The work provides a new idea for the stability control of karst tunnels.

The repair rate of deep permanent roadways is about 90%, and most of which are projects treating floor heave. The deformation behaviors of crosscut were analyzed in the work according to a trackage crosscut at the shaft station of Panyidong Coal Mine in Huainan, China. Crosscut has complex characteristics such as globality, difference, and rheology under deep stress because that crosscut passes through multiple strata. The mechanism of crosscut floor heave was studied based on on-site in situ stress tests and surrounding rock composition tests. The floor heave of trackage crosscut is water swelling in the mudstone and sandy-mudstone areas where the mineral components are mainly kaolinite and illite mixed layers. In the areas of fine and medium-fine sandstone, trackage crosscut is in shear dislocation under high horizontal stress. The slip-line field theory was used to study the ultimate load and maximum failure depth of crosscut floor heave. According to the deformation characteristics of crosscut floor heave, a collaborative control technology enhancing the bearing structure of all-sided surrounding rocks was proposed, including filling of the U-shaped steel supports, shallow grouting in the all-sided surrounding rocks and deep grouting in the floor and inverted arches. A support scheme for repairing the floor was designed based on the specific engineering geology of trackage crosscut floor heave at the shaft station of the Panyidong Coal Mine. After repairing, the crosscut floor heave was monitored for 70 d. The results showed the following. (1) After repairing, the maximum cumulative floor heave was 45.3 mm, which was only 8.1% of that before repairing. (2) Crosscut floor heave changed greatly within one week after repair, with a maximum floor heave speed of 4.7 mm/d. The floor heave speed was maintained below 1 mm/d after 40 d, and the floor heave tended to be stable after 60 d. The collaborative control technology enhancing the bearing structure of all-sided surrounding rocks could control the crosscut floor heave in soft rocks under deep high horizontal stress.

The increasing use of high-voltage transmission wires requires more and more high-voltage pylons, and sometimes, constructing pylons in mining areas is very urgent. To ensure the safe operation of pylons, coal pillars with large side lengths are usually used to provide sufficient support; however, this results in a huge waste of coal. Eight high-voltage pylons are arranged on the ground surface corresponding to the location of working face 1110 of Sima Coal Mine in Shanxi Province, China, which cannot be mined by traditional methods. Taking this as the engineering background, the failure mode of high-voltage pylon is first analyzed. Using FLAC^3D numerical simulations, the influence of five different mining plans on ground surface deformation in working face 1110 is evaluated, and the vertical settlement and horizontal deformation in different areas of the ground surface, as well as the variation law of horizontal strain and slope are analyzed. According to the numerical simulation results, the range of thickness-limiting mining or backfill mining in working face 1110 is shown in scheme 3, and the key regions in the mining process are determined. Secondly, the strengthening scheme of high-voltage pylons is designed, that is, the four foundations of high-voltage pylons are connected as a whole with steel supports and steel connectors so as to improve the structural strength of the high-voltage pylon. Finally, the position change in the foundation of high-voltage pylons was monitored for 22 consecutive months. The results show that the maximum settlement of the high-voltage tower foundation is 3.1 m, which is consistent with the actual mining thickness; The high-voltage pylon was stably moved, and the change in transmission line tension and total length was usually less than 1.0%. The combined mining scheme and foundation strengthening scheme can ensure the safe operation of high-voltage pylons and provide a new method for the stability control of ground buildings in coal mining subsidence area.

Four representative TS-RCR (three-soft rock-coal-rock) structural bodies were selected according to the lithofacies analysis of coal measures in the Xiangshui Coal Mine, Guizhou, China, to analyze the mechanical properties, internal structure damage characteristics, and crack evolution law of the TS-RCR structural body composed of a soft roof, a soft floor, and soft coal seams. The mechanical model of the TS-RCR structural body was proposed. (1) The stress-strain curves of TS-RCR structures with different lithologies under cyclic loading and unloading show a change rule of sparsity, density, and sparsity with the increased cycles. The deformation of TS-RCR structures under cyclic loading and unloading can be divided into four stages. When the height ratio of the TS-RCR structural body was the same, the higher the strength of the upper and lower rocks, the more cycles the TS-RCR structural body had, and the denser the cyclic loading and unloading curve. On the contrary, the fewer cycles the TS-RCR structural body had, the sparser the cyclic loading and unloading curve. (2) The T₂ (transverse relaxation time) spectrum curves of the structural bodies were monitored at about 1 and 10ms, and two obvious peaks were detected, indicating micropores and mesopores with a large volume in the structural body. Signal intensity increased at the relaxation time of 1ms, decreased at 10100ms, and increased slightly at 1001000ms. The pore structure of the structural body with different lithologies changed significantly with the increased cycle number. (3) The damage and failure process of the structural body was roughly divided into three periods according to the time-history analysis of acoustic-emission AF (the ratio of acoustic-emission ringing count to duration) of the structural body: the active period with a relatively low AF value (AF<60kHz) in the 1^st-2^nd cycles; the rising period with a relatively stable increase of the AF value in the 3^rd-4^th cycles; and the explosive period with a relatively high AF value (AF60kHz) in the 5^th cycles. According to the relationship between the RA (the ratio of the rise time to the amplitude of the acoustic-emission-detection wave) value and time, the evolution law of the RA value and AF value of structures with different lithologies is similar in different periods under cyclic loading and unloading.