Numerical Study on the Hydraulic Fracturing Pattern in the Hard Roof in Response to Mining-Induced Stress

Abstract

A hard roof can cause serious issues corelated with the stability of the panel including large deformation of the roadway in the gob, rock burst, coal and gas outbursts, etc. Currently, hydraulic fracturing has ever-increasingly been used to help control these above-mentioned issues in many engineering cases. This paper presents a series of numerical simulations for hydraulic fracturing with a recently developed model to examine the weakening effect of this pre-conditioning measure on a hard roof. The results show that large deflections in the principal stress direction occur above the coal seam after mining, which can be progressively enhanced as the working face continuously advances. This further could significantly affect the hydraulic fracturing pattern and result in arc-shaped fracture propagation, especially for the hydraulic fracture in stress-descending areas. The obtained results suggest that the hydraulic fracturing operation in a hard roof is preferable in the areas close to the middle of the gob where the created fractures would be deflected more. At last, sensitivity analysis shows that geological conditions have great influence on the hydraulic fracturing pattern. Among the factors analyzed in this paper, the difference between the maximum and minimum stress has the largest influence and should be fully considered. This study could provide a theoretical basis for the practical hydraulic fracturing operation in a hard roof.