Dynamic effect of gas initial desorption in coals with different moisture contents and energy-controlling mechanism for outburst prevention of water injection in coal seams

In view of the continuous occurrence of coal and gas outbursts (hereafter as ‘outbursts’), and the dynamic behavior and quantitative mechanism of water injection in coal seams preventing outbursts are not still unclear. In the study, the characterization of mechanical action and expansion energy release of gas initial desorption (GID) in coals with different moisture contents is revealed to clarify the influence of moisture on gas dynamic effect in coals. The results show that during the GID of gas-containing coals, the increased moisture content will decrease the pressure and momentum of gas from coals significantly. And the gas pressure reduction rate shows an increasing trend, with the decreasing reduction rate of gas momentum. Therefore, the ability of gas damaging coals with high moisture contents is weakened by reducing the degree of pressure-induced mechanical action on the coal surface and the impact intensity on the cracks in coals. Meanwhile, the gas-released cumulative expansion energy from the coals is significantly reduced, with the decreasing increase rate of the gas energy. Therefrom, the moisture in the coal masses synthetically weakens the dual effects of pressure attribute and expansion effect of gas decreasing the damage ability of gas to coals, which can prevent the further development of outburst preparation process. It is concluded that the correlation between moisture content and the initial expansion energy of released gas is linearly and negatively correlated. For moisture content with the every 1% increase in coal masses of Xuehu Coal Mine, the energy decreases by about 11% on average. Accordingly, the quantitative water injection in coal mining face is carried out to eliminate the local abnormal zone containing gas.