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Computational Modelling of Groundwater Inflow During a Longwall Coal Mining Advance: A Case Study from the Shanxi Province, China

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Abstract

The paper investigates groundwater inflow into a longwall working face of the Xiegou Coal Mine located in the northwest of the Shanxi province, China. Three modelling approaches, including basic Darcy modelling, full poroelastic modelling using Biot’s classical theory, and the full Biot poroelastic modelling that takes into account permeability alterations of the coal seam and strata due to alterations in the mining-induced stress state, are used to estimate the fluid flow into the underground longwall coal mine as the excavation progresses. Based on plausible assumptions of hydrogeological structure, boundary conditions and mining conditions, a three-dimensional finite element model of the simplified geological setting is developed using the COMSOL software. The permeability changes in both the strata and the coal seam due to the mining are associated with the mining-induced stress changes and water pressure, and the correlation between them accords with the exponential relationship. The differences in the modelling results of three approaches were analyzed, and the simulation results are compared with the field measurements.

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Abbreviations

\({K_{\text{D}}}\) :

Bulk modulus the skeleton

\({G_{\text{D}}}\) :

Shear modulus of the skeleton

\(p\) :

Pore fluid pressure

\({\mathbf{\varepsilon }}\) :

Infinitesimal strain tensor

\({\mathbf{I}}\) :

Identity tensor

\(\alpha\) :

Biot coefficient

\({K_{\text{S}}}\) :

Bulk modulus of the material composing the porous skeleton

\({\mathbf{F}}\) :

Body force vector

\({\mathbf{u}}\) :

Displacement of the solid skeleton

\({{\mathbf{v}}^{\text{f}}}\) :

Fluid velocity vector

\({{\mathbf{v}}^{\text{s}}}\) :

Solid velocity vector

\(K\) :

Permeability

\(\eta\) :

Dynamic viscosity of water

\({\nu _{\text{u}}}\) :

Undrained Poisson’s ratio

\(\nu\) :

Skeletal Poisson’s ratio

\(\tilde {B}\) :

Pore pressure parameter

\(\beta\) :

Stress sensitivity coefficient

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments for improving the presentation. The financial support from the China Scholarship Council and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 51504159, 51604182) are gratefully acknowledged. The modelling concepts presented in the paper were developed by APSS. The material parameter search and COMSOL modelling were done by YC. The first draft of the paper was written by YC, and the final version of the paper was written and edited by APSS. WL assisted in the acquisition of the project and geological data. All authors have agreed to the listing of authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Mining Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, Shanxi, China

    Yuedu Chen & Weiguo Liang

  2. Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics, McGill University, 817 Sherbrooke Street West, Montréal, QC, H3A 0C3, Canada

    Yuedu Chen & A. P. S. Selvadurai

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  1. Yuedu Chen
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  2. A. P. S. Selvadurai
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  3. Weiguo Liang
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Correspondence to Yuedu Chen.

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Chen, Y., Selvadurai, A.P.S. & Liang, W. Computational Modelling of Groundwater Inflow During a Longwall Coal Mining Advance: A Case Study from the Shanxi Province, China. Rock Mech Rock Eng 52, 917–934 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-018-1603-1

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