Causes of fracturing and evidence of coal seam deforming in the vibration impact zone

Abstract

The use of vibration effects for the effective preparation of a low–permeability coal seam is a fairly promising and constantly improving process. The main difficulty of theoretical research is the fact that coal seams are very diverse in their properties and represent a complex environment. Under the influence of vibration, the capacitive and filtration characteristics of the coal massif change. This leads to a change in the structure and capacity of the porous-fissured space of coal. This reaction finds a good explanation: each act of vibration action causes a rapid change in the coal mass in accordance with the operating stresses during vibration. This point of view was used as the basis for theoretical reasoning, in order to justify the rational impact of directional vibration on the coal seam, to change fracturing and further intensify methane recovery. This is confirmed by both laboratory and industrial experiments on vibration effects. Changes in the environment after strong earthquakes are of a similar nature, even at great distances from the source of the impact. Therefore, the simplest in terms of constructive implementation and less costly in terms of energy and material consumption is a directed oscillatory process on a low-permeability coal seam, which is performed using vibration installations of both surface and underground design.