High-efficiency maintenance and control of the deep coal roadway surrounding rock stability is a reliable guarantee for sustainable development of a coal mine. However, it is difficult to control the stability of a roadway that locates near a roadway with large deformation. With return air roadway 21201 (RAR 21201) in Hulusu coal mine as the research background, in situ investigation, theoretical analysis, numerical simulation, and engineering practice were carried out to study pressure relief effect on the surrounding rock after the severe deformation of the roadway. Besides, the feasibility of excavating a new roadway near this damaged one by means of pressure relief effect is also discussed. Results showed that after the strong mining roadway suffered huge loose deformation, the space inside shrank so violently that surrounding rock released high stress to a large extent, which formed certain pressure relief effect on the rock. Through excavating a new roadway near this deformed one, the new roadway could obtain a relative low stress environment with the help of the pressure relief effect, which is beneficial for maintenance and control of itself. Equal row spacing double-bearing ring support technology is proposed and carried out. Engineering practice indicates that the new excavated roadway escaped from possible separation fracture in the roof anchoring range, and the surrounding rock deformation of the new roadway is well controlled, which verifies the pressure relief effect mentioned. This paper provides a reference for scientific mining under the condition of deep buried and high stress mining in western China.

Goaf-side roadway driving could not only notably reduce the loss of coal resources and improve the coal recovery rates, but also greatly mitigate the imbalance between excavation speed and production needs, which are able to prolong the service life of the mine and are pivotal to sustainable and efficient development of underground coal mines. However, it is difficult to control the stability of the goaf-side roadway, especially under mining disturbance of another adjacent coal working face. In order to control the stability of the goaf-side roadway, Haulageway 1513 in the Xinyi Coal Mine of China, under mining disturbance, theoretical analysis, numerical simulation, and engineering practice were carried out to reveal the mechanism of overburden key strata fracture, stress distribution, and deformation characteristics of the surrounding rock of the goaf-side roadway due to mining disturbance. Results showed that some key strata above Goaf 1512 did not fracture due to the influence of the strata caving angles. However, these key strata would fracture and break into rock blocks when suffering from mining disturbance of the adjacent coal working face, which changed the stress distribution and increased the deformations of the surrounding rock of the goaf-side roadway. The combined techniques of pressure relief and bolt support were proposed and carried out to control the stability of the goaf-side roadway. Engineering practice indicated that the maximum deformations of the roof and sidewall-to-sidewall were 220 mm and 470 mm, respectively. The deformations of the goaf-side roadway under mining disturbance were efficiently controlled.

Due to the impossibility of obtaining intact standard experimental samples, it is difficult to test the mechanical properties of soft and broken coal and rock obtained from deep coal mines. So, an advanced experimental technology based on a small sample volume, nanoindentation technology, was introduced and used to measure the mechanical parameters of them. By using the averaging method, the hardness of shale, mudstone and coal are 1191.90 MPa, 674.95 MPa and 424.30 MPa, respectively; their elastic moduli are 20.39 GPa, 11.72 GPa and 5.47 GPa; and their fracture toughness were 1.66 MPa·m^0.5, 1.28 MPa·m^0.5 and 0.77 MPa·m^0.5. These three mechanical parameters were used to quantify and map the heterogeneous properties of coal and rock for convenience and accuracy. For example, the inter quartile range (IQR) of the hardness of shale, mudstone, and coal are 1502.10 MPa, 1016.20 MPa and 54.64 MPa, respectively, meaning that coal has the best homogeneity among them. Nanoindentation technology provides researchers with a convenient method to conduct mechanical experiments at the microscale.

It is of paramount importance to understand the hydration swelling and weakening properties of clay minerals, such as montmorillonite, to determine their mechanical responses during deep underground argillaceous engineering. In this study, the mineral components and microscopic structure of mudstone were characterised using X-ray powder diffraction and field-emission scanning electron microscopy. Experimental schemes were devised to determine the properties of mudstone under the influence of underground water and stress; these involved compacting montmorillonite particles with various water contents and conducting uniaxial compression tests. Experimental results demonstrated that compaction stress changes the microscopic structure of the montmorillonite matrix and affects its properties, and stress independency was found at particular water and stress conditions. Two equations were then obtained to describe the swelling and weakening properties of the montmorillonite matrix based on the discrete element method; further, the hydration swelling equation represents the linear decrease in the density of the montmorillonite matrix with an increase in the water content. It was also determined that the water dependency of uniaxial compressive strength can be described by negative quartic equations, and the uniaxial compressive strength of the montmorillonite matrix is just 0.04 MPa with a water content of 0.6. The experimental results are in good agreement with the calculated solutions and provide an important experimental basis to the understanding of the mechanical properties of montmorillonite-rich mudstones under the influence of underground water and stress.

High-efficiency maintenance and control of the deep coal roadway roof stability is a reliable guarantee for safe production and sustainable development of a coal mine. With belt haulage roadway 3108 in MenKeqing coal mine as the research background, in situ investigation, theoretical analysis, numerical simulation, and engineering practice were carried out to reveal the law of improving the bearing state of bolts by increasing the thickness of the roof anchoring layer. Also, the mechanism of the high-efficiency and long anchoring of the roof is revealed. Results show that increasing thickness of the roof anchorage layer could mobilize deep rock mass to participate in the bearing and promote the bolt to increase the resistance in a timely manner to limit the deformation of rock mass. Through the close link between shallow soft rock mass and deep stable rock mass, the deformation of the shallow rock mass is well controlled and so are the development and expansion of the roof separated fissures from shallow to deep. Long high-performance sustainable bolt technology for roof are proposed and carried out to control the stability of the deep roadway roof. Engineering practice indicates that deformations of roof could be efficiently controlled. The maximum deformations of the roof and sidewall-to-sidewall are 17 mm and 24 mm, respectively. No obvious separation fissures are found in the anchoring range of roof. This study provides a reference for roof stability control of deep roadway under similar conditions.