The role of mining intensity and pre-existing fracture attributes on spatial, temporal and magnitude characteristics of microseismicity in longwall coal mining
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Knowledge regarding microseismic characteristics associated with longwall coal mining is crucial in evaluating the potential for underground mining hazards. Although microseismicity is induced by mining activities, it still remains uncertain as to what extent mining activities influence the spatial, temporal, and magnitude characteristics of microseismicity. To establish a thorough understanding of the relationship between microseismic characteristics and mining activities, a 27-month long microseismic monitoring campaign was conducted around a highly stressed coal zone and eight producing longwall panels at Coal Mine Velenje in Slovenia. Each microseismic event was classified to be associated with the producing longwall panel that triggered it, and the microseismic response to multi-panel longwall top coal caving face advance was analysed. Monitoring data have shown that locations of microseismic events coincided with stress concentrated regions. It was established that both seismic count and energy-intensive regions associated with coal mining in different panels are spatially connected, but they do not fully overlap with mined-out or stress concentrated areas. In addition, microseismic event counts frequency was found to be well correlated with mining intensity, while seismic energy magnitude and spatial distribution are poorly correlated with the same. Therefore, microseismic characteristics could not be explained solely by the mining-induced stress transfer and mining intensity, but are believed to be dominated by pre-existing natural fractures throughout the coal seam. Analyses of these observations helped the development of a conceptual seismic-generation model, which provides new insights into the causes of microseismicity in coal mining.
Date Issued
2020-09-01
Date Acceptance
2020-05-22
Citation
Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, 2020, 53, pp.4139-4162
ISSN
0723-2632
Publisher
Springer Verlag
Start Page
4139
End Page
4162
Journal / Book Title
Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering
Volume
53
Copyright Statement
© 2020 The Authors. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Sponsor
Commission of the European Communities
Commission of the European Communities
Commission of the European Communities
Grant Number
FRCR-CT-2015-00005
RFCR-CT-2010-00002
RFCR-CT-2014-00004
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Physical Sciences
Engineering, Geological
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Engineering
Geology
Mining-induced microseismicity
Longwall top coal caving mining
Natural fractures
Stress concentration
In-situ measurements
INDUCED SEISMICITY
STRESS
ACTIVATION
INJECTION
EVOLUTION
FIELD
0905 Civil Engineering
0914 Resources Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy
Geological & Geomatics Engineering
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2020-05-31