Mining-Induced Stress and Ground Pressure Behavior Characteristics in Mining a Thick Coal Seam With Hard Roofs

The hard roof of coal mines has the characteristics of high hardness, good integrity, and large layer thickness, which leads to many ground control problems. To reveal the influence of a hard roof structure on the stress performance and coal pillar stability during mining operations, the 8,104 and 8,105 working faces in the Tongxin coal mine were considered as the research object to analyze the stress behavior during the working face advance. Numerical simulation software FLAC ^3D was used to establish the numerical model of the longwall face under hard roof conditions. The stress distribution laws and coal pillar stability under different roof strengths were analyzed so as to explain the impacts of the hard roof on the stress distribution at the working face. The results show that during the second face proceeding, the influence zone of the front abutment pressure under hard roof conditions is 6 m wider than that under soft roof conditions, and the bearing stress at the working face is 10.4 MPa higher. At the mining position, the plastic zone of the pillar under hard roof conditions is 11 m wider than that under soft roof conditions, and the peak vertical stress is 5.13 MPa higher than that under soft roof conditions. At 25 m ahead of the working face, the plastic zone of the pillar under hard roof conditions is 6 m wider than that under soft roof conditions, and the peak vertical stress is 24.84 MPa higher than that under soft roof conditions. Additional overburden pressure produced by the uncaved hard roof increased pillar stress and plastic zones. Therefore, the hard roof is the main cause of strong ground pressure behavior in the Tongxin coal mine. Aiming at the strong mine pressure behavior, it is suggested to adopt the pre-splitting technology to reduce the influence of the hard roof on mine pressure.