It is difficult to monitor the collapse position of a gas extraction borehole in a coal seam. In order to solve this problem, a fiber-optic grating collapse monitoring technology was proposed. Five kinds of grating arrangements (0°, 45°, 90°, 135°, 180°) were examined to simulate the hole collapse. The relationship model between the center wavelength offset and the amount of collapsed coal and extraction flow was constructed to obtain the distribution curve of the hole collapse position and quality along the length of the hole, and flow decay rates of 80% and 50% were used as the critical values to classify the three levels of hole collapse. The results show that the hole collapse monitoring accuracy is the highest with the grating measurement points located below the substrate material arrangement. Finally, the effectiveness of fiber-optic grating monitoring technology was verified in the 2202 working face of the Changcun coal mine of the Lu’an Group, and the pure amount of gas extraction from the repaired borehole after monitoring was increased by 62.6% compared with that before the repair.

Protective seam mining is the most economical and effective measure for eliminating coal and gas herniation. To study the unloading effect of the mining of a protective seam on the protected layer, and to better grasp the effect of the protective layer on the abatement, conventional triaxial tests were conducted on coal samples with the unloading of the axial pressure and the peripheral pressure. The results showed that, under the unloading path, the bias stress–axial strain curve showed a sudden upward trend upon unloading, and the slope of the curve increased suddenly, which was more obvious after the peripheral pressure exceeded 10 MPa; stress unloading before the peak accelerated the yielding of the specimen. Under the unloading test path, the deformation modulus of the coal samples decreased with the decrease in the perimeter pressure, while the damage factor and Poisson’s ratio increased with the decrease in the perimeter pressure. Compared to the conventional triaxial test, under the unloading condition, the cohesion of the coal samples at peak stress decreased by 93.41% and the angle of internal friction increased by 37.41%, while the cohesion at the moment of residual strength decreased by 89.60% and the angle of internal friction increased by 37.44°. The brittleness index of the coal samples under unloading conditions with a peripheral pressure of 5 MPa, 10 MPa, 15 MPa, and 20 MPa increased by 178.83%, 159.18%, 87.93%, and 63.89%, respectively, compared to the conventional triaxial test. It can be seen that the greater the enclosing pressure, the smaller the difference in the brittleness index of the coal body.

Silica aerogels are critical for thermal protection in extreme environments; however, their mechanical response mechanisms under high temperatures remain elusive. This study employs large-scale molecular dynamics simulations to systematically investigate the mechanical behavior of silica aerogels (0.43–0.71 g/cm³) across a temperature range of 298–1800 K. The results reveal a fundamental competition between thermal softening and sintering-induced strengthening. Under tensile loading, the thermal softening effect dominates, leading to a significant fracture strength reduction of up to 49.6% at 1800 K, while simultaneously enhancing ductility, extending fracture strain to 80%. Conversely, under compressive loading, the sintering effect induced by temperatures above 900 K outweighs softening, resulting in a ~20% increase in the elastic modulus for high-density samples at 1300 K. Microstructural analysis attributes this enhancement to the preferential collapse of large pores and densification into an atomic-scale micropore range (0.5–1.0 nm). This work elucidates how the interplay between softening and sintering dictates material failure or strengthening, providing a microscopic theoretical basis for designing thermal shock-resistant materials for new energy batteries.