The methane concentration of the return current will always be enhanced to a certain degree when hydraulic fracturing with bedding drilling is implemented to a gassy coal seam in an underground coal mine. The methane in coal seam is driven out by hydraulic fracturing. Thus, the phenomenon is named as methane driven effect of hydraulic fracturing. After deep-hole hydraulic fracturing at the tunneling face of the gassy coal seam, the coal methane content exhibits a ‘‘low-high-low" distribution along excavation direction in the following advancing process, verifying the existence of methane driven caused by hydraulic fracturing in methane-bearing coal seam. Hydraulic fracturing causes the change of pore-water and methane pressure in surrounding coal. The uneven distribution of the pore pressure forms a pore pressure gradient. The free methane migrates from the position of high pore(methane) pressure to the position of low pore(methane) pressure. The methane pressure gradient is the fundamental driving force for methane-driven coal seam hydraulic fracturing. The uneven hydraulic crack propagation and the effect of time(as some processes need time to complete and are not completed instantaneously) will result in uneven methane driven. Therefore, an even hydraulic fracturing technique should be used to avoid the negative effects of methane driven; on the other hand, by taking fully advantage of methane driven, two technologies are presented.
t Research and development of safe and effective control technology of hard roof is an inevitable trend at present. Directional hydraulic fracturing technology is expected to become a safe and effective way to control and manage hard roof. In order to make hard roof fracture in a directional way, a hydraulic fracture field test has been conducted in the third panel district of Tashan Coal Mine in Datong. First, two hydraulic fracturing drilling holes and four observing drilling holes were arranged in the roof, followed by a wedge-shaped ring slot in each hydraulic fracturing drilling hole. The hydraulic fracturing holes were then sealed and, hydraulic fracturing was conducted. The results show that the hard roof is fractured directionally by the hydraulic fracturing function of the two fracturing drilling holes; the sudden drop, or the overall downward trend of hydraulic pressure from hydraulic monitoring is the proof that the rock in the hard roof has been fractured. The required hydraulic pressure to fracture the hard roof in Tashan coal mine, consisting of carboniferous sandstone layer, is 50.09 MPa, and the fracturing radius of a single drilling hole is not less than 10.5 m. The wedge-shaped ring slot made in the bottom of the hydraulic fracturing drilling hole plays a guiding role for crack propagation. After the hydraulic fracturing drill hole is cracked, the propagation of the resulting hydraulic crack, affected mainly by the regional stress field, will turn to other directions.
Bina-Xiana HUANGBin YUFeng FENGZhao LIYou-Zhuang WANGJin-Rong LIU
