The application of gangue concrete can be an effective method to solve the massive gangue heap and shortage of raw materials of concrete by replacing the gravel and river sand with crushed gangue. An Acoustic emission (AE) is one of the non-destructive testing methods that can be used for damage detection of the gangue concrete structure. However, there are obvious mechanics differences between gangue and gravel/river sand, so the previous analysis methods of AE signal for concrete structure detection, mainly applied to ordinary concrete, are not suitable for gangue concrete. Based on this, the physical and mechanical characteristics of coal gangue were studied, and the uniaxial compressive test, along with AE monitoring of gangue concrete, was conducted in this paper. The differences in AE behavior between gangue concrete and ordinary concrete were also analyzed. The mechanical test result shows that the compressive strength of gangue concrete can reach 35–40 MPa. Comparing with ordinary concrete, gangue concrete has larger initial porosity and abrupt rupture. Additionally, the accumulative energy growth rate of gangue concrete has two peak values before the peak load, while ordinary concrete only has one. This difference can be used to forecast damage of gangue concrete structure by AE technology. This paper shows the possibility of making concrete by coal gangue, and the possibility of identifying its damage degree with the use of acoustic emission technology.

Investigation of the damage characteristics of rock material under the combined effect of cyclic load and impact load is extremely crucial for many mining engineering applications. Based on energy dissipation theory, we considered factors such as circulation times, the cyclic stress of a uniaxial cyclic load test, and the impact pressure (strain rate) of a split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) test, studying the damage mechanism of red sandstone under the combined action of a uniaxial cyclic and impact loads. We found that when the load stress is 60%, 70%, and 80% of the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) of red sandstone, the stress can still promote the development of microcracks and the generation of new cracks in the rock, increasing the inner damage of the rock so that it reduces the rock strength. As the cyclic time increases, the energy dissipation ratio presented a trend of decreasing dramatically and then maintaining basically no change, and the peak strain and the damage variable of the rock both increased first and then tended to remain relatively constant. The damage variable of the rock specimen under the combined action of the uniaxial cyclic loading and impact load had a significant corresponding relationship with the initial damage. As the rock specimen initial damage increases, the damage variable and the peak stress of the rock specimen both decreases almost linearly with initial damage. Meanwhile, the average particle diameter of the rock specimen after breakage gradually increased, showing a positively correlated tendency. The ratio between the fragment quality of the bigger particle diameter in the total rock specimen quality gradually increased. Under the conditions of the same initial damage, a higher impact pressure resulted in smaller rock fragment average particle diameters.

Based on the overburdened structure of shallow coal seams in the West of China, the traditional support resistance method may not apply in such regions due to many roof shear and support crushing accidents. Four support working resistance indexes—rated working resistance, average working resistance, average-partial working resistance, and average-upper working resistance are counted as the candidate working resistance. The method of optimizing and inverting working resistance was put forward based on the roof control effect and working resistance overrun percentage. The simulation of a fully-mechanized top coal caving working face was built by using the UDEC software to analyze the top coal cavability and roof subsidence under different supporting strengths to determine the final working resistance. The project practice of 1322 working face in Jindi coal mine shows that the working resistance is 80–90% of calculated rated working resistance. The hydraulic support is worked under good condition. There is no pillar shrinkage and support crushing during coal mining.

Solid backfill mining as a green mining method has already been successfully applied in many mine sites. Higher requirements for the backfilling materials have been put forward in special regions, such as shallow coal seams, ecologically susceptible areas, and sites with building on the surface. The control effects of common backfilling materials on in situ strata of gob need to be studied and compared to ensure the suitable materials are applied in the mine. The meso-structure, stress variation, energy dissipation, and backfilling effects of the five common solid backfilling materials, which are Aeolian sand, gangue, mineral waste residue, coal ash, and loess are analyzed in this paper. The results show that the Aeolian sand and gangue are densely packed and internally hard when compared to other backfill materials. The deformation of the five materials to absorb the same amount of energy in the order of higher to lower was determined as Aeolian sand, gangue, mineral waste residue, coal ash and loess. The Aeolian sand’s strain energy density is 1.67 times larger than the loess, however, the Aeolian’s strain energy density in front of working face is just 32.2% of the loess, which is important to ensure the safety of the working face. The stress changes were monitored in situ with Aeolian sand and gangue as backfill materials. The monitoring results show that the Aeolian sand stress increase rate is quicker than gangue, which can support the roof effectively.

Backfilling mining method is an overlying strata control way, which is widely used in underground coal mine. This method is effective in preventing and controlling geological disasters such as surface subsidence, mine water inrush, rock burst, and other disasters. Cement-treated marine clay (CMC) is a typical porous media, which has abundant reserves and can be used as a new backfilling material. Therefore, the mechanical characteristics of CMC are very important for overlying strata control in coal mine. To investigate stress-strain behavior of CMC, isotropic consolidated drained (CID) triaxial test and isotropic compression test (ICT) were conducted with different confining pressures in the range of 50–800 kPa. Stress-strain behavior was found similar to those of the overconsolidated stress-strain behavior as well as the pore water pressure versus strain. Stress versus strain curves under lower confining pressure 50–250 kPa presented shear dilatancy. The result shows that the peak strength increased linearly with increasing confining pressure. The internal friction angle and cohesion are 48° and 590 kPa, respectively. Before the confining pressure reaches 727 kPa, which is the primary yielding point, the secant modulus E₁ (the secant modulus at 1% axial strain) and the secant modulus E₅₀ (corresponding to the 50% of the peak point) increase initially and decrease afterwards with the increasing of confining pressure. Afterwards, the two parameters increased with increasing confining pressure. The yielding stress occurred in the stage, generating a dramatic decrease in tangent modulus. This study can be a theoretical basis for engineering application of this new backfilling material.