• Energy Research

Coal burst occurrences are affected by a range of mining and geological factors. Excessive slipping between the strata layers may release a considerable amount of strain energy, which can be destructive. A competent strata is also more vulnerable to riveting a large amount of strain energy. If the stored energy in the rigid roof reaches a certain level, it will be released suddenly which can create a serious dynamic reaction leading to coal burst incidents. In this paper, a new damage model based on the modified thermomechanical continuum constitutive model in coal mass and the contact layers between the rock and coal mass is proposed. The original continuum constitutive model was initially developed for the cemented granular materials. The application of the modified continuum constitutive model is the key aspect to understand the momentum energy between the coal–rock interactions. The transformed energy between the coal mass and different strata layers will be analytically demonstrated as a function of the rock/joint quality interaction conditions. The failure and post failure in the coal mass and coal–rock joint interaction will be classified by the coal mass crushing, coal–rock interaction damage and fragment reorganisation. The outcomes of this paper will help to forecast the possibility of the coal burst occurrence based on the interaction between the coal mass and the strata layers in a coal mine.

In underground mining, it is not currently feasible to forecast a coal burst incident. A coal burst usually includes suddenly abrupt energy release in line with the significant deformed shape in a coal mass as well as coal ejection. The major source of the released energy is the energy stored in the coal. The effect of geological characteristics in the coal on the possible released energy due to material and joint damping is classified as a current silent issue. Therefore, innovative research is needed to understand the influence of coal’s joint and cleat characters (directions and densities) on the possible energy release and/or dissipation. A simple and novel analytical solution is developed in this paper to calculate the amount of released energy due to varying joint density. A broad validation is conducted by comparing the outcomes of the developed analytical model with the results of a three-dimensional numerical simulation using the commercial discrete element package 3DEC. An appropriate agreement has been observed between the results from the numerical modelling and the suggested closed form solution. The paper derives a novel analytical solution to calculate the amount of released energy in coal with different joint densities.