Aiming at serious deformation and failure of large‐section coal roadway under mined zones in ultra‐thick coal seam, its deformation and failure characteristics are analyzed based on the field measurement. This paper reveals the mechanism of roadway roof separation, roof leakage, and right rib extrusion. Based on the mechanism, two kinds of secondary support schemes are proposed, that is, “grouting + I‐steel support + bolt” (scheme I) and “grouting + U steel support + anchor + anchor cable” (scheme II). The industrial experiment is carried out at 1070 auxiliary transportation roadway in Tashan Coal Mine. The measured results show that the roadway roof separations of the secondary support scheme I and II are only 1/11 and 1/46 of the original support scheme, respectively, while the lateral displacements of the roadway are only 1/7 and 1/44 of the original support scheme. It could be seen that the deformation and failure of the roadway surrounding rock have been well controlled.

Aiming to reduce the high mining stress observed in large-space roof structures during mechanized mining of thick coal seams, a control technique based on protective-seam mining is proposed. This technique was used to investigate the 8108 working face of the No. 3–5 thick coal seam of the Tashan mine located in the Datong area of Shanxi, China, by means of simulations and field measurements. The numerical simulation revealed that the No. 3–5 coal seam undergoes expansion and deformation, accompanied by stress relief due to the mining of the overlying No. 4 coal seam. The physical simulation demonstrated that mining the protective seam changes the structural characteristics of the overlying strata in advance and reduces the integrity of the roof in the No. 3–5 coal seam. Field measurements showed that the support loads in the 8108 working face are significantly weaker than those in the adjacent 8107 working face, where protective-seam mining was not performed. In the absence of high resistance on the support and distinct periodic weighting characteristics, the rock masses around the 8108 working face and roadway could be easily supported.

Backfill mining is widely used to control strata movement and improve the stress environment in China’s coal mines. In the present study, the effects of backfill mining on strata movement and water inrush were studied based on a case study conducted in Caozhuang Coal Mine. The in-situ investigation measured abutment pressure distribution (APD), roof floor displacement (RFD), and vertical stress in the backfill area. Results are as follows: (i) The range and peak of APD, RFD, and vertical stress in the backfill area are smaller than in traditional longwall mining with the caving method. (ii) Backfill mining could change the movement form and amplitude of overburden and improve the ground pressure environment. (iii) Floor failure depth (FFD) is much smaller in backfill mining. Backfill mining can be an effective method for floor water inrush prevention.

The second invariant of deviatoric stress of the coal and rock mass is closely related to the distortion energy driving the deformation and failure of the surrounding rock. Based on the second invariant of deviatoric stress, this study built a global model of gob-side entry with different widths of the coal pillar through numerical analysis, and compared and analyzed the evolution law of the surrounding rock distortion energy, plastic location state, and roadway deformation with the width of the coal pillar. This study concluded that the peak distortion energy in the virgin coal rib and the roof and floor of the gob-side entry gradually increases with the reduction in the coal pillar width. When the coal pillar width is 5 m, the second invariant peak value of deviatoric stress in the virgin coal rib reaches the maximum of 294.8 MPa². When the width of the coal pillar is reduced from 30 m to 5 m, the second invariant of the deviatoric stress in the side of the coal pillar and the roof and floor of the side presents the law of first increasing and then decreasing. The greater the damage degree of the coal pillar, the smaller the distortion energy it contains. The distortion energy is the key factor in driving the deformation and failure of the surrounding rock. The greater the distortion energy, the greater the deformation degree of the surrounding rock, the more vulnerable it is to external mining stress disturbance, and the greater the difficulty in controlling the stability of the roadway-surrounding rock.

This paper investigates the mechanical properties of graphite tailings concrete beams under various curing environments. The results show that the concentration of graphite tailings has an important influence on the mechanical properties of concrete. Finally, the bending characteristics of the beam and the modified bearing capacity calculation formula are obtained, which provides a theoretical basis and the reference value for the construction of green building materials. Through research, the main innovations and main findings of this paper are as follows: (1) In the three kinds of concrete experimental environment, the fracture load and ultimate load of concrete beams with graphite tailings replacement rate of 20% are the largest. (2) In the three kinds of concrete test environment, when the concrete test beams under the same load, with the increase of graphite tailings replacement rate, the mid-span deflection of concrete beams showed a trend of decreasing first and then increasing. When the replacement rate of graphite tailings sand is 20%, the mid-span deflection of the test beam is the smallest. (3) Through experiments, it is found that the normal section bearing capacity of graphite tailings concrete beams after chloride salt erosion conforms to the plane section assumption. After chlorine salt erosion, the strain of the longitudinal tensile steel bar of concrete beams with different graphite tailings sand replacement rates is the same as that of ordinary concrete beams, and the slope of the strain curve is the same, showing a linear trend. The experimental results show that the replacement rate of graphite tailings sand has an insignificant effect on the strain of steel bars. (4) The Gauss function is used to fit the experimental value of normal section bearing capacity of concrete beam, and the calculation formula of normal section ultimate bearing capacity of graphite tailings sand concrete beam under chloride environment is established. The research results of this paper have significant reference value for the study of mechanical properties of graphite tailings sand concrete components.