Modeling of Coal and Gas Outbursts Triggered by External Disturbance

Coal and gas outbursts in underground coal mines involve catastrophic ejection of coal and large quantities of gas, coal and rock, creating a major potential mining hazard for underground miners. The catastrophic phenomena have posed a challenge to coal mine safety experts and plagued underground mining operations of gassy coal seams in many countries for over a century. Since the first reported coal and gas outbursts, considerable efforts to understand the mechanical behaviors and mechanisms of coal and gas outbursts have been paid, and descriptions of the dynamic phenomenon can be found in many mining literatures including a number of monographic studies. In a number of studies, attempts have been made to provide an explanation to the complex coal and gas outbursts. The precise mechanisms of coal and gas outburst are still unresolved but the effects of stress, gas content and physico-mechanical properties of the coal must be considered. In this paper, laboratory experiments and numerical simulation on coal and gas outbursts were respectively performed. The conclusion of this paper is helpful to investigate and attempt to gain insight into the mechanisms of the coal and gas outbursts.