Control Technology of Surface Movement Scope with Directional Hydraulic Fracturing Technology in Longwall Mining: A Case Study

Zhanjie Feng, Wenbing Guo, Feiya Xu, Daming Yang and Weiqiang Yang
Additional contact information
Zhanjie Feng: School of Energy Science and Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454000, China
Wenbing Guo: School of Energy Science and Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454000, China
Feiya Xu: School of Energy Science and Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454000, China
Daming Yang: School of Mining and Geomatics, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan 056000, China
Weiqiang Yang: School of Energy Science and Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454000, China

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 18, 1-18

Abstract: Mining-induced surface subsidence causes a series of environmental hazards and social problems, including farmland destruction, waterlogging and building damage in the subsidence area. To reduce mining damages, an innovative method of controlling the surface movement scope via artificial weak planes generated by hydraulic fracturing technology was proposed in this paper. Numerical models were built to analyze the influence of weak planes with different heights and dips on the overlying strata movement. The numerical simulation results showed that the weak planes structure cut off the development of the overlying strata displacement to the surface and affected the surface movement scope. When the weak planes’ dips were bigger than the angle of critical deformation, with the increase of the weak planes’ heights (0–120 m) the advance angle of influence changed from 53.61° to 59.15°, and the advance distance of influence changed from 173.31 m to 140.27 m which decreased by 30.04 m. In applications at Sihe coal mine in China, directional hydraulic fracturing technology was used in panel 5304 to form artificial weak planes in overlying strata. The measured surface subsidence and deformation value met the numerical simulation results and the mining-induced surface movement scope reduced. Moreover, no damage occurred to the surface buildings which were predicted to be in the affected area after extraction. This technology provided a new method to protect the surface structures from damages and had great benefits for the sustainable development of coal mines.

Keywords: underground mining; surface movement scope; numerical simulation; directional hydraulic fracturing; artificial weak planes; sustainable development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/18/3480/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/18/3480/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:18:p:3480-:d:265614

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().