The borehole television approach is an effective way of detecting mining-induced fractures in overburden strata as it can visualize fractures to facilitate a quantitative analysis of size, quantity, length, and other features. In this article, the borehole television approach is applied on panel 20105 of the Wangjialing Coal Mine in China to investigate the overburden movement and spatiotemporal evolution law of mining-induced fractures from the coal seam to ground surface. The results revealed that the overburden strata experienced the phases of roof caving, generation of fracture, bed separation, dislocations, fracture propagation, surface subsidence, and closing of fractures. The process can be divided into the initiation stage, the active stage, and the degradation stage along the mining direction. For exploited working faces, the caved zone height is 2.9–4.11 times the mining height, and the height of the fractured zone is 19.35–22.19 times the mining height. The height range of the three parts in the fractured zone is 24–26, 40–45, and 30–35 m. Significant fractures were observed in the bending zone. Step subsidence and cracks, which indicate severe damages, were observed on the ground surface above the goaf.

The primary problem needed to be solved in mining close coal seams is to understand quantitatively the floor failure depth of the upper coal seam. In this study, according to the mining and geological conditions of close coal seams (#10 and #11 coal seams) in the Second Mining Zone of Caocun Coal Mine, the mechanical model of floor failure of the upper coal seam was built. Calculation results show that the advanced abutment pressure caused by the mining of the upper coal seam, resulted in the floor failure depth with a maximum of 26.1 m, which is 2.8 times of the distance between two coal seams. On this basis, the mechanical model of the remaining protective coal pillar was established and the stress distribution status under the remaining protective coal pillar in the 10# coal seam was then theoretically analysed. Analysis results show that stress distribution under the remaining protective coal pillar was significantly heterogeneous. It was also determined that the interior staggering distance should be at least 4.6 m to arrange the gateways of the #209 island coalface in the lower coal seam. Taken into account a certain safety coefficient (1.6–1.7), as well as reducing the loss of coal resources, the reasonable interior staggering distance was finally determined as 7.5 m. Finally, a novel method using radon was initially proposed to detect the floor failure depth of the upper coal seam in mining close coal seams, which could overcome deficiencies of current research methods.

Surrounding rock deformation control (SRDC) of roadways in deep three-soft coal seams (TCSs) is a significant technological difficulty that hinders the safety and high-efficiency mining of coal mines. According to the specific mining geological conditions of Liuquan Coal Mine, this study analyzed the deformation characteristics of surrounding rock under an original support scheme for the headgate (a typical asymmetrical roadway) in #3307 coalface. The analysis results showed that the surrounding rock displayed whole section deformation characteristics. The maximum value of roof subsidence was 369 mm, the maximum cumulative deformation value of the two sidewalls was 784 mm, and the maximum value of floor heave was 386 mm. On this basis, the mechanical structure models (roof, sidewall, and floor) of the roadway surrounding rock (RSR) were constructed, and the deformation mechanisms of the RSR in the TCS were revealed. Then, the principles for the SRDC of this asymmetrical roadway in deep TCS were proposed, the support parameters of the headgate were optimized, and the numerical simulation analysis of support effect was also performed using FLAC^2D software. Engineering application results indicated that the surrounding rock deformation of the headgate was better controlled. Under the optimized scheme, the maximum value of roof subsidence was 50 mm, the maximum cumulative deformation value of two sidewalls was 120 mm, and the maximum value of floor heave was 80 mm, which verified the feasibility of the optimized support parameters.

The Weibull distribution is used to describe the heterogeneity of rock hydraulics and embedded into the Fish program which is based on the discrete element method. The developed program overcomes the limitation of the Universal Distinct Element Code (UDEC) software regarding the number of parameter groups, which cannot exceed 50. A method for parameter assignment of heterogeneous rocks is proposed together with a method for estimating the initial flow rate value of heterogeneous models. Based on the established heterogeneity calculation model, the influence of block homogeneity, hydraulic aperture homogeneity, and stress on the seepage characteristics is studied. The results indicate that under zero stress conditions, the flow rate is positively correlated with N^0.5 showing a strong linear relationship. The linear relationship is gradually enhanced with the increase in the shape parameters. The relationship between the flow rate and shape parameters is logarithmic with a correlation coefficient greater than 0.9654. The relationship between the flow rate and the axial pressure and confining pressure can be described by quadratic and cubic polynomials, respectively, based on which we further discuss the variation characteristics of equivalent hydraulic apertures under the various axial pressures, confining pressures, and shape parameters.

To better understand the physical and mechanical behavior of weakly cemented rock with different moisture contents for the success of water-preserved mining, this paper presents the systematic tri-axial compression tests on three typical rock samples (i.e., mudstone, sandstone, and sandy mudstone) sampled from Ili mining area, where the environmental requirements for water conservation are significantly strict. Both the influences of moisture content and confining pressure on the failure mode and the stress-strain behavior of weakly cemented rock have been discussed and compared with each other. Test results showed that: (1) compared to sandstone and sandy mudstone, both the peak stress and residual stress of the weakly cemented mudstone are much more sensitive to confining pressure and moisture content. In detail, the peak stress is very relevant to moisture content, whereas, the residual stress is more sensitive to the confining pressure, (2) with the increase of moisture content, both the yield and ductility of weakly cemented mudstone have been significantly enhanced. However, a similar experimental observation has been found for sandstone and sandy mudstone, and (3) the microstructure and the mineral component are believed to be the two main factors leading to the scatter in terms of the stress-strain behavior for different weakly cemented rocks. Experimental results and discussions presented in this paper can provide the guideline for further research on the application of water-preserved mining in other coal mines with a similar geological condition.