Water-inrush mechanism from the head-on working face roof in a Jurassic coal seam in the Ordos Basin

Abstract

When Chinese coal mines are mining Carboniferous Permian coal seams, the mechanism of water inrush from the roof of the working face usually conforms to the "Upper Three Zones" or "Upper Four Zones" theory. The water inrush passageway is water-conducting fracture zone, and the water inrush position is located in the goaf. However, when mining Jurassic coal seams in Chinese coal mines, the location of water inrush often appears at the head-on working face, above the coal mining machine. Due to the support of the fully mechanized mining support, the roof rock layer cannot collapse and therefore cannot form water-conducting fracture zone. Therefore, the water inrush mechanism cannot be explained by the above two theories. This paper is guided by the Practical Mine Pressure Control Theory, and based on the explanation of the motion forms of bending (pulling) failure movement and shearing (cutting) failure movement, and combined with on-site examples, it is revealed that the passageways leading to from the head-on working face roof in a Jurassic coal seam in the Ordos Basin are splitting zones type, fracture line type and structural fracture type, respectively. Taking the changes in water inflow during the mining process of the 3301 and 3302 working faces in Zhujiamao Coal Mine as examples, this paper reveals the mechanism of water inrush from the head-on working face roof caused by splitting zones type, and proves the existence of this passageway through on-site 3D high-density electrical detection and tracing experiments. Taking two catastrophic water inrush accidents that occurred head-on in the 1309 working face of Guojiahe Coal Industry Co., Ltd. as examples, the water inrush mechanism of the fracture line type and the water inrush mechanism of the structural fracture type were respectively revealed. Based on mechanism of water inrush from head-on roof of working face and the analysis of the on-site water inrush process, a method for distinguishing the type of water inrush passageway from the front roof of the working face is proposed. The results indicate that the Jurassic coal seam mining in the Ordos Basin is prone to shearing (cutting) failure movement, resulting in the frequent formation of the three types of water inrush passageways mentioned above.