Investigation of the Height of Fractured Water-Conducting Zone: A Case Study

At present, the prediction of the height of fractured water-conducting zone has become increasingly important for the safety of underground mining, since the mining depth increase continuously. According to mining conditions and petrophysical parameters of overburden strata, a suitable numerical model is established by FLAC3D to carry out numerical analysis on the failure of the plastic zone, the stress distribution and the vertical displacement in the overburden strata with the advancement of 1311 working face. Combining the stress characteristics of the typical “three-zones” theoretical, numerical resolutions of the height of fractured water-conducting zone is obtained by comprehensively analyzing simulation results. Synthesize the numerical solutions and the in situ investigation results, the height of caved zone and fractured water-conducting zone are determined as 53 m and 125 m, respectively. It is pointed out that numerical simulation has the advantages of easy implementation and good accuracy, and can be combined with other methods to accurately predict the fractured water-conducting zone height. The outcome of this work has vital guiding significance for the prevention of roof water disasters and ensuring mine safety in 1311 working face mining.