Open Access

ARTICLE

Analysis and Numerical Simulation of Hydrofracture Crack Propagation in Coal-Rock Bed

Yiyu Lu¹, Chenpeng Song^1,2, Yunzhong Jia¹, Binwei Xia¹, Zhaolong Ge¹, Jiren Tang¹, Qian Li¹

1 State Key Laboratory of Coal Mine Disaster Dynamics and Control, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030, China.
2 Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 023 65106640; fax: +86 023 65106640. E-mail: songchenpeng@163.com (C. Song)

Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 2015, 105(1), 69-86. https://doi.org/10.3970/cmes.2015.105.069

Abstract

In underground coal mines, hydrofracture can cause the increase of breathability in the fractured coal bed. When the hydrofracture crack propagates to the interface between the coal bed and the roof-floor stratum, the crack may enter roof-floor lithology, thus posing a limit on the scope of breathability increase and making it difficult to support the roof and floor board for subsequent coal mining. In this work, a two-dimensional model of coal rock bed that contains hydrofracture crack was constructed. Then an investigation that combines the fracture mechanics and the system of flow and solid in rock failure process analysis (RFPA2D-Flow) were carried out to study the failure mechanism at the interface between rocks and coals, and critical water pressure that hydrofracture crack propagates. The results indicated that the main factors that affect the direction of hydrofracture crack propagation are the angle of intersection between coal-rock interface and horizontal section, horizontal crustal stress difference, tension-shear mixed crack fracture toughness in coal-rock interface and differences in elasticity modulus of coal-rock bed.The possibility of crack directly entering coal-rock interface would increase with the increase in angle of intersection or horizontal crustal stress difference. The trend that crack propagates along the coal-rock interface will become stronger with the decrease of the fracture toughness at the coal-rock interface and the increase of the elasticity modulus difference between the coal bed and the roof strata. The results of this study was to put forward a method of controlling hydrofracture crack, optimize the fracturing well location provides a certain theoretical basis.

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