Investigation on failure behavior of collapse column in China's coal mine based on discontinuous deformation numerical method

PLoS One. 2019 Aug 6;14(8):e0219733. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0219733. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Karst collapse column is a serious geological disaster in China's coal mines. There are various karst collapse columns in coal mine areas, such as Huainan, Huaibei, Xingtai, Lu'an. And they have seriously affected mining safety and geological environment. The present research is focused on analyzing subsidence mechanism and dynamic collapse process. Based on mechanical analysis of thin plate theory, a detailed model of collapse column slipping and bending fracture is constructed to gather the critical conditions of the collapse column roof. The sensitivity parameters analysis shows that both the radius and roof thickness of cave have a great influence on the sliding instability and bending fracture. Meanwhile, the buried depth also affects bending failure. The discontinuous deformation analysis (DDA) method is used to simulate and analyze the collapse process. The numerical results indicate that the stability of inverted funnel collapse column is dominated by the bending stress of roof strata. The movement of columnar collapse column is mainly caused by sliding instability. However, the funnel collapse column is relatively stable, and does not change in the same condition. The displacement field analysis shows that the collapse range of inverted funnel collapse column is obviously larger than that of columnar collapse column, in which its maximum displacement is approximately 1.5 times that of the columnar collapse column. There is no large area collapse on the upper part of the funnel collapse column, and the block system is relatively stable. The principal stress field analysis proves the above results.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • China
  • Coal Mining*
  • Environmental Monitoring
  • Geological Phenomena*
  • Mechanical Phenomena*
  • Models, Theoretical*

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant numbers 51622404 and 11572343 to JPZ, the State Key Research Development Program of China, grant number 2016YFC0801404 to JPZ, and by the Outstanding Young Talents of Ten Thousand People Plan, grant number W02070044 to JPZ. The had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.