Study on Reasonable Stopping and Time-Sharing Partition Support of Fully Mechanized Top Coal Caving Face Under the Interference of Stopping Line in Close-Up Coal Seam
Authors: Chen Dongdong , Wu Yiyi , Xie Shengrong , Guo Fangfang , He Fulian , Zou Hang 
Published: November 2021

Close-distance coal seams are widely distributed in China, and there is a problem of stopping mining in a large number of working faces. Taking Yanzishan mine as the engineering background, the mined-out area and the remaining end-mining coal pillar of No.4 coal seam (upper coal seam) mined in advance caused strong interference to the stopping mining of N316 working face of No.3 coal seam under it. Through field observation, laboratory experiment, and support data collection, the mechanical parameters of coal and rock mass and periodic weighting condition of the working face were mastered, and numerical simulation and similar model experiments were carried out. Three positional relationships between the stopping position of the underlying N316 working face and the upper stopping line were obtained: “externally staggered with the upper stopping line” (ESUL), “overlapped with upper stopping line” (OUL), and “internally staggered with the upper stop line” (ISUL, ISUL-SD for shorter internal staggered distances, ISUL-LD for longer ones). The formation and evolution of the stress arch structure of ESUL → OUL → ISUL-SD → ISUL-LD are obtained from the analysis: ① ESUL: there is a double stress arch structure of goaf side and end-mining coal pillar side in the overburden and stress superposition appears in the middle arch foot (stopping mining place). ② OUL: it evolved into a single arch structure of goaf-solid coal, and the stress at the stop of mining was relatively minimum. ③ ISUL-SD: it is still a single arch structure, and the stress at the stop of mining is still small. ④ ISUL-LD: the double stress arch is regenerated and stress superposition occurs at the front arch foot (stopping mining place). At the same time, the morphological evolution process of stress arch is as follows: “front and back stress arches, superimposed with middle arch foot” → “front arch gradually decreases” → “front arch dies, and two arches merge into single arch” → “single arch gradually increases” → “two arches are regenerated, superimposed with front arch foot”. On-the-spot analysis from the combination of stress and overburden structure: ① ESUL: the stress concentration degree is the highest above the stopping space, and the overburden block in the large-scale caving zone directly acts on the support, which makes the stopping operation difficult. ② OUL: although the stress environment is the best, the overlying key blocks will have hidden dangers of overall rotation or sliding instability. ③ ISUL-SD: the stress environment is good, and the overlying rock can realize the stable structure of the cantilever plate (the internal staggered distance is less than the periodic weighting step), and the mining is stopped at this position to realize the safe and smooth withdrawal of the support. ④ ISUL-LD: it is basically consistent with stopping mining when single-layer coal is used but is limited by the limited length of the end-mining coal pillar. In addition, the self-digging retracement channel is designed to serve the whole retracement process, and the idea of time-sharing partition support for a large cross-section of mining stoppage and its corresponding scheme is put forward according to the retracement process. Through the simulation of prestressed field and field practice, the roof overlying rock structure is stable during the whole retracement period, thus realizing the safe and smooth mining stoppage and retracement of the working face.