Verification of passive seismic velocity tomography in rock burst hazard assessment

Passive seismic velocity tomography, as a new geophysical technique, has broad application prospects in rock burst hazard assessment. But it has been less applied in the field up to now, especially there is no literature reported regarding the comparison and verification with traditional methods. In this work, the velocity tomography of P waves was conducted using the combination of tomography and microseismic monitoring system during the mining process of long-wall panel 25110 in the Yima Yuejin coal mine, Henan Province, China. Moreover, the correspondences between the tomography technology and traditional methods were analyzed. The results show that strong seismic events mainly occur in zones with high velocity and/or high velocity gradients. There exist a relatively strong positive correlation between P-wave velocity and numerical simulation results, drilling pulverized coal parameters, borehole stress values, and electromagnetic emission values, which verifies the feasibility of rock burst hazard assessment through passive seismic velocity tomography. This study can provide a reference for further research on quantitative and direct relations between wave velocity and rock burst hazard or stress.