Binwen Ma , Heping Xie , Xiufeng Zhang , Hongwei Zhou , Changtai Zhou , Wenbin Sun , Jianbo Zhu
{"title":"Experimental investigation of rock mineralogical effect on energy transfer and rockbursts induced by tensile fracturing of roof strata","authors":"Binwen Ma , Heping Xie , Xiufeng Zhang , Hongwei Zhou , Changtai Zhou , Wenbin Sun , Jianbo Zhu","doi":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2025.106087","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2025.106087","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The elastic energy released by the tensile fracturing of hard roof strata is partially transferred to surrounding rocks and causes rockbursts during underground coal exploitation. However, the effect of rock mineralogical properties on the transferred energy and rockbursts has not been quantitatively analysed. In this study, three-point bending tests were conducted to reproduce the tensile fracturing of roof strata, with the transferred energy, i.e., the radiated energy as acoustic emission (AE) events and the kinetic energy of fractured rock, being calculated using a calibrated AE system and a digital image correlation (DIC) system. The effects of rock cementation, rock grain size and mineral composition on the energy transfer were quantitatively analysed. The energy transfer during the tensile fracture of roof strata is 2–3 orders of magnitude higher in the siliceous roof strata than in the argillaceous ones. The energy transfer for the siliceous strata stems mainly from the kinetic energy of fractured strata that is one order of magnitude higher than the radiated energy. The high kinetic energy is attributed to a very high crack velocity of 225 m/s. Owing to localized micro-shear failure and the detachment of rock grains, the energy transfer stems mainly from the radiated energy for the argillaceous strata. The energy transfer increases with the increased grain size and brittle minerals. It can be found that rock cementation plays a domain role in the rock mineralogical effects on the energy transfer and rockbursts compared to grain size and mineral component. The tensile fracture of brittle siliceous cemented strata exhibits a much greater rockburst hazard than plastic cemented strata. These findings have implications for the identification of roof strata with rockburst hazards and the effective prevention of rockburst disasters caused by the tensile fracture of hard key roof strata.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54941,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences","volume":"189 ","pages":"Article 106087"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143629159","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tiancheng Shan , Zhonghui Li , Xin Zhang , Xiaoran Wang , Haishan Jia , Enyuan Wang , Quancong Zhang , Yue Niu , Dongming Wang
{"title":"Superstatistical approach of electric potential and acoustic emission for investigating damage evolution and precursor of water-bearing sandstone under uniaxial compression","authors":"Tiancheng Shan , Zhonghui Li , Xin Zhang , Xiaoran Wang , Haishan Jia , Enyuan Wang , Quancong Zhang , Yue Niu , Dongming Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2025.106063","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2025.106063","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Deep resource mining and geotechnical structures are prone to serious geological disasters in complex environments of abundant groundwater and high geostress. Comprehensive analysis of electric potential (EP) and acoustic emission (AE) from a superstatistical perspective promises predictive insights, necessitating further exploration. In this paper, to reveal the effects of different water contents and acidity, the EP and AE monitoring tests of coarse sandstone under uniaxial compression were conducted. The temporal evolution and superstatistical features of AEs and EPs were analyzed to elucidate correlations with pore-fissure parameters and mechanical properties. The impact of water content and acidity on response mechanisms of EPs and AEs was investigated by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) tests. Based on Tsallis entropy <em>q</em><sub>EP</sub> and <em>q</em><sub>AE</sub>, a novel muti-geophysical prediction method were proposed. The results indicate mechanical properties and AE activities decrease with increasing water content and acidity, while the average EP value enhances due to electrokinetic effect. EPs and AEs exhibit superstatistical features, and <em>q</em><sub>EP</sub> and <em>q</em><sub>AE</sub> decrease with increasing water content and acidity, correlating negatively with porosity and pore fissure dimensions. It is attributed to reduced frictional slip and rupture severity by water lubrication and chemical erosion, diminishing charge generation and elastic wave release. <em>q</em><sub>EP</sub> and <em>q</em><sub>AE</sub> vary from 1 to 3, and display drastic fluctuation after plastic stage. Then damage weighting coefficient and damage correlation coefficient proposed are used to identify the precursory of rock failure and obtain good prediction effect. These findings offer new perspectives for the prediction of geological disasters associated with water-rich environments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54941,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences","volume":"189 ","pages":"Article 106063"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143610791","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yang Ju , Dongyi Xing , Zhangyu Ren , Shanyong Wang , Kai Wang
{"title":"Optical quantification and characterization of 3D stress fields and plastic zones around arch tunnel models using stress freezing and 3D printing techniques","authors":"Yang Ju , Dongyi Xing , Zhangyu Ren , Shanyong Wang , Kai Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2025.106088","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2025.106088","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Accurate characterization and quantification of the three-dimensional (3D) stress field and plastic zones around tunnels are vital for predicting potential rock bursts and spalling disasters and providing a quantitative basis for rational support design. However, the 3D stress field and plastic deformations around tunnels cannot be easily quantified experimentally because of the limitations of conventional experimental techniques. In this study, a novel experimental method combining photoelastic stress-freezing, phase shifting, and phase unwrapping techniques was proposed to quantitatively characterize the principal stress difference and shear stress around an arch tunnel model fabricated using 3D printing. The plastic deformation zones and elastoplastic boundaries around the tunnel were quantitatively defined using the Tresca yield criterion and stress-optic law. The experimental results obtained by the proposed method were compared with the simulation results of the 3D stress and plastic deformations around the tunnel. The results indicated that the areas with high stresses were primarily located at the corners, sidewalls, and shoulders of the arch tunnel. The sidewalls are stress disturbance zones, whereas the top and bottom are rapidly changing stress zones, indicating that disasters are prone to occur in these areas. Plastic zones were formed primarily at the sidewalls, corners, and shoulders of the tunnel, and the entire morphology exhibited a butterfly shape. The proposed method demonstrates good potential for validating numerical solutions. This study contributes to the understanding of the failure mechanisms of underground tunnels and enhances the prediction and prevention of tunnel disasters.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54941,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences","volume":"189 ","pages":"Article 106088"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143600536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Feliks K. Kiszkurno , Jörg Buchwald , Christian B. Silberman , Olaf Kolditz , Thomas Nagel
{"title":"Is more always better? Study on uncertainties introduced by decision-making process of model design — A case study with thermo-osmosis","authors":"Feliks K. Kiszkurno , Jörg Buchwald , Christian B. Silberman , Olaf Kolditz , Thomas Nagel","doi":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2025.106075","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2025.106075","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Proper understanding and handling of uncertainties is critical for the development of safe and reliable facilities for long-term storage of nuclear waste. To prove their safety, numerical simulations are commonly used. They are based on models including physical processes, constitutive assumptions, material parameters, etc. Numerical simulations only approximate the observed reality. Among sources for this mismatch between observations and simulation results are uncertainties in selecting a correct model of the physical processes taking place in the subsurface and uncertainties in parameter values. The impact they can have on the results of the numerical simulations and conclusions drawn from them can be significant and needs to be explored to improve the trust in demonstrations of safety derived from models and numerical simulations. In this study, this will be done by a joint investigation of uncertainties originating from process model selection and parameter calibration.</div><div>Existing literature suggests a potentially significant impact of thermo-osmosis (TO) on pore pressure evolution as a result of thermal gradients in clay rocks around nuclear waste canisters. In this study, different process models will be confronted with the common belief that more complex models (with more degrees of freedom) will always yield a better match with data. In this perspective, it could be argued that expanding the physical process with TO can be abused for parameter tweaking, leading to overfitting the observed data independent of physical adequacy. To disprove this, uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis methods will be applied to test the impact of multiple combinations of assumptions about physical process, relevance of TO and model parameter values to show that it may not necessarily be the most complex model that will represent the observed data best in a plausible manner.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54941,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences","volume":"189 ","pages":"Article 106075"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143600537","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Longjiang Wang , Ke Ma , Zhiyi Liao , Hongyuan Liu , Zhiliang Gao , Kaikai Wang
{"title":"Microcrack evolution and local stress inversion at the bottom of a high arch dam during operations across a major earthquake based on microseismic monitoring","authors":"Longjiang Wang , Ke Ma , Zhiyi Liao , Hongyuan Liu , Zhiliang Gao , Kaikai Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2025.106089","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2025.106089","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>High arch dam is susceptible to microcracking at its bottom due to stress concentration. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate microcracking at the dam bottom for evaluating the integrity and safety of the high arch dam during its operation. In this study, based on the microseismic (MS) data monitored at the bottom of the Dagangshan high arch dam during its normal operation across the Luding Ms6.8 earthquake, the moment tensor inversion and iterative joint inversion methods were implemented to analyze the focal mechanism of microcracks. This analysis revealed the evolution characteristics and fracture types of microcracks as well as explored the stress characteristics at the dam bottom. The results indicated that the MS events at the dam bottom were mainly distributed from the dam heel to the middle of the dam bottom. The fracture types were primarily compressive and tensile, which occupied approximately 38 % and 32 %, respectively, in average, and the microcracks form fracture channels in the NW-SE and NE-SW directions. The stress inversion analysis clarified that the occurrence of the microcracks at the dam bottom were primarily controlled by compressive stress, with the maximum principal tensile stress being dominant in the SW-NE directions. The primary stress axis of the stress field at the dam bottom exhibited minimal variations before and after the earthquake, suggesting that the bottom of the Dagangshan high arch dam remained stable after the earthquake. However, the earthquake and its aftershocks altered the opening and closing states of the microcracks, which was the main reason for the sudden change in seepage pressure at the dam bottom. Therefore, this study helps to reveal the damage mechanism and local stress characteristics of the high arch dam, and provides a reference for seepage control and removal, as well as safety and stability evaluation of the high arch dam.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54941,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences","volume":"189 ","pages":"Article 106089"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143593397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Quantifying the progressive development of breakouts initiated from pre-existing fractures: Implications for local stress heterogeneity","authors":"Shihuai Zhang , Lintong Jiang , Haimeng Shen , Xianghui Qin , Xingguang Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2025.106078","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2025.106078","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study quantifies the initiation and progressive development of borehole breakouts near pre-existing fractures through numerical modeling. Focusing on a 1000-m-deep borehole (BS34) at the Xinchang site, a candidate for China's high-level radioactive waste repository, we conduct an integrated geomechanical analysis to understand borehole breakout behavior. Despite high rock strength and low in-situ stress levels, breakouts have been observed near pre-existing fractures. These breakouts exhibit strong azimuthal correlations with the fracture dip directions, highlighting the fracture influences on breakout development. Using a finite element model based on the fracture geometry and far-field stresses at a depth of 146 m in BS34, we find that a pre-existing fracture can significantly perturb the local stress field via slip-induced stress drop. After drilling, the locally-disturbed stresses are further concentrated around the major axis tips of the resultant elliptical hole. Combined with the fracture- and drilling-induced rock mass damage, the stress concentrations explain breakout initiation near the fracture dip direction, even under low stress conditions. As breakouts propagate downward or upward, they show rotational realignments back to the far-field <em>S</em><sub>hmin</sub> orientation, with tapering width and depth as stress concentrations gradually diminish. The results reveal the role of borehole-fracture intersection in controlling local breakout rotations, and emphasize the importance of accounting for fracture influences when using breakout data to estimate far-field stresses. This study underscores the need for detailed fracture and borehole information to improve the interpretation of stress heterogeneity in the Earth's crust.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54941,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 106078"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143520196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Saeed Salimzadeh , Dane Kasperczyk , Mohammad Sayyafzadeh , Teeratorn Kadeethum
{"title":"Inferring fracture dilation and shear slip from surface deformation utilising trained surrogate models","authors":"Saeed Salimzadeh , Dane Kasperczyk , Mohammad Sayyafzadeh , Teeratorn Kadeethum","doi":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2025.106077","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2025.106077","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>An important task in energy and CO<sub>2</sub> storage (sequestration) in the subsurface is to verify that the surrounding fractures and faults are not activated, acting as leakage pathways. This is achievable through effective and efficient Measurement, Monitoring and Verification (MMV) plans. In this work, two surrogate models are trained to captures dilation (opening) and shear deformation of fractures, and the associated surface deformation. The trained surrogate model, based on conditional Generative-Adversarial Networks (cGAN) receives fracture apertures from dilational fractures together with fracture slips from shear fractures and predicts the combined surface deformation. An inversion algorithm based on Bayesian framework is proposed to identify the geometry of both types of fractures, as well as volume of dilational fractures and deformation moment induced by shear fractures, all from the measured surface deformation data. The inversion algorithm utilises the Differential Evolution (DE) optimisation technique that has the superior performance in finding the global minimum of cost function. The proposed surrogate-assisted inversion successfully inferred the unknown dip, dip direction and the volume of the dilational fractures as well as the induced deformation moment in shear fractures. The model was further tested for the inversion of a field hydraulic fracturing tilt dataset applying different scenarios with varying unknowns to show the model's performance, as well as incorporating shear deformation for better match with the observed data.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54941,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 106077"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143520195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Qisheng Tang , Qiuming Gong , Yangyang Liu , Mila Guli , Alemasi Bieke , Shaoqiang Liu
{"title":"Tunnel face rock mass class identification based on multi-domain feature extraction and selection of TBM cutterhead vibration signals","authors":"Qisheng Tang , Qiuming Gong , Yangyang Liu , Mila Guli , Alemasi Bieke , Shaoqiang Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2025.106066","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2025.106066","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The rock mass class identification of the tunnel face is a key problem for TBM operating parameters optimization and subsequent tunnel support measures selection. This study presents a rock mass class identification method by monitoring and classifying TBM cutterhead vibration signals. Firstly, vibration signals were collected by a set of cutterhead vibration monitoring system installed on the TBM cutterhead during TBM tunnelling. The corresponding rock mass classification were conducted along the excavated tunnel field investigation. Secondly, time statistics and waveform, power spectrum frequency, nonlinear and time-frequency domain were extracted from the TBM cutterhead vibration signal. 18 features were selected by Boruta-SHAP feature selection method as important feature set. Based on the result analysis of different machine learning models, the XGBoost model was the best model used to identify the rock mass class. Its accuracy was up to 98.79 % on the test set. Finally, the feature sensitivity analysis by SHAP interpretation showed that energy entropy, Imf6e and kurtosis were the most sensitive features for different rock mass classes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54941,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 106066"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143488675","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Quan Gan , Xinyuan Zhang , Qiang Li , Jianye Chen , Fengshou Zhang , Zhen Zhong , Yunzhong Jia , Pengliang Yu , Mengke An , Derek Elsworth
{"title":"Influence of roughness and slip velocity on the evolution of frictional strength","authors":"Quan Gan , Xinyuan Zhang , Qiang Li , Jianye Chen , Fengshou Zhang , Zhen Zhong , Yunzhong Jia , Pengliang Yu , Mengke An , Derek Elsworth","doi":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2025.106076","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2025.106076","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Surface roughness and slip velocity play a critical role in determining the strength of crustal faults and their potential seismic response. We examine these controls through slide-hold-slide (SHS) experiments on bare sandstone fractures of variable roughnesses and slip velocities. These experiments explore the effects of frictional healing and frictional relaxation quantified through rate-and state-dependent friction law (RSF). Frictional healing rates (<em>β</em>) range between 0.0020 and 0.0074 and frictional relaxation rates (<em>β</em><sub>c</sub>) between 0.0058 and 0.0097. Increases in surface roughness and shear velocity each accelerate healing and relaxation, whereas elevated normal stresses promote accelerated healing but suppress relaxation. Fracture contact area is closely correlated with changes in frictional healing rate with the evolution of protrusion playing a key role in this frictional response. The number of time-binned AE ring-down counts increase with increasing strength as observed during reactivation – and therefore serve as a reliable indicator of increased strength gain. The logarithmic relationship between hold-time and evolution in the contact area is confirmed by correlations with seismic moment independently measured from the absolutely calibrated AE data. This correlates with an observed increased RSF-<em>b</em> evocative of elevated frictional recovery during hold that translates to a more rapid and intense energy release.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54941,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 106076"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143508189","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Farui Shi , Heping Xie , Minghui Li , Bozhi Deng , Delei Shang , Jun Lu
{"title":"Heterogeneous mechanical and sorption characteristics induced interaction among different components in coal: Experiment and simulation","authors":"Farui Shi , Heping Xie , Minghui Li , Bozhi Deng , Delei Shang , Jun Lu","doi":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2025.106064","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijrmms.2025.106064","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Coal formation necessitates a long geological age and intricate physical, chemical, and biological processes. Throughout this process, variations in the raw materials and external conditions contribute to coal formation, resulting in the final mined coal being a heterogeneous mixture of multiple components. This study takes bituminous coal as the research object to investigate its heterogeneous sorption and mechanical characteristics and their effects. Firstly, various non-destructive techniques employing CT, SEM, and EDS were conducted to elucidate coal’s structure. It is found that in the CT and SEM images, the mineral components contribute more white color, while organic components contribute more dark color. As organic and mineral components mixed in various forms in the observations, the coal has a heterogeneous structure characteristic on various scales. Based on the heterogeneous structure, indentation experiments were conducted on different areas in coal. The indentation results demonstrated the relationship between the mechanical modulus and the structure of various components. It was found that the area with more mineral matter had a higher mechanical modulus, implying heterogeneous mechanical characteristics in coal considering its heterogeneous structure. Simultaneously, sorption deformation kinetics experiments were performed in various areas dominated by different coal components. It was found that the CO<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub></math></span>-induced sorption deformation is faster to reach equilibrium in the high-density area than in the low-density area. The difference in sorption deformation rate is able to result in the mechanical interaction among components. That can be reflected in a specific kinetics of sorption deformation where the sorption strain firstly increases and then decreases throughout the sorption process, revealing the heterogeneous local sorption deformation characteristics in coal. According to experimental findings and theoretical analysis, a multi-component contact mechanics model involving the heterogeneous coal structure was constructed for simulations using a self-developed nonlinear contact finite element program. Considering heterogeneous mechanical and sorption deformation characteristics from the experimental part, the program simulated the mechanical response of coal components. In alignment with the experimental results, the strain that increases first and then decreases can be obtained, confirming that the mechanical interaction among components may be induced by the heterogeneous sorption and mechanical characteristics of coal. The findings derived from the current work can provide a deeper understanding of the mechanical behavior of coal bodies in the context of solid-gas coupling and establish a foundation for practical coal-gas engineering applications, such as predicting the geomechanical performance of coal and mitigating potential geohazards (e.g","PeriodicalId":54941,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 106064"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143479924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}