This paper presents a scientific basis and reference for the application of ceramsite concrete in underground coal mines. Taking fly-ash ceramsite as raw material, a variety of mix proportions of C20 ceramsite concrete were proposed by changing the sand rate of concrete. The results showed that: (1) fly-ash ceramsite has different water absorption performance with different particle sizes. The water absorption stopped after soaked for 48 h. So, the ceramsite should be soaked for more than 48 h to prevent the cement from hydrating insufficient which affects the mechanical properties of the concrete. (2) Seven mix proportions of C20 ceramsite concrete were designed by changing the ceramsite proportion. The ceramsite proportion of 43% was determined as optimal scheme whose 28-day strength was 29.60 MPa and elastic modulus was 12.45 GPa. (3) The optimal scheme was applied and verified in the field. The early strength of ceramsite concrete promotes quickly, 3-day strength was 16.8 MPa, and the 28-day strength was 29.9 MPa. Compared with ordinary pebble concrete, ceramsite concrete can provide faster, higher strength support to the roadway. Meanwhile, ceramsite concrete have properties of lightweight, and its application will bring economic and social benefits.

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Rock burst is one major threat to mining safety and economy. Rock burst occurring in the longwall mining roadway accounts for 85% of the total amount of burst events. This paper investigates the causality mechanism of rock burst in longwall roadways by establishing a finite elastic beam model in the working face based on the elastic foundation theory. The breakage process of the main roof and related dynamic effects are analysed. The result shows that the movement of the main roof shows free vibration under certain damping resistance. It is also found that the roof dominant vibration frequency increases with the increase in the thickness and elastic modulus of the roof. During roof vibration, the vertical stress applied on the coal mass is unloaded. The destressing of the roof-coal interface causes the coal mass in the roadway rib to slip into the roadway under the horizontal ground stress, resulting in rock burst. The possibility of rock burst increases with increase in the strength and thickness of the roof and horizontal ground stress within the coal mass. This mechanism explains the occurrence of rock burst in the mining roadway; it provides the fundamental theory for the prevention and controlling technologies of longwall roadway rock burst.

Borehole drilling in a coal seam is an efficient way to relieve ground stress and prevent coal burst. The deformational behavior and failure mechanism of a Φ50mm×L100mm coal sample with a 2–4 mm diameter drilling hole were studied under standard burst proneness laboratory testing. The results show that with the increase in borehole diameter, the uniaxial compressive strength (RC), impact energy index (KE), and elastic energy index (WET) decrease, and the dynamic failure time (DT) is prolonged. The overall burst proneness of the seam changes from strong to weak for a 4 mm hole sample. A high speed camera and acoustic emission (AE) monitor were used to study the deformation procedure and failure mode of the samples. It is found that cracks are propagated around the drilled hole at the initial stage of the loading, and the AE event and energy are weakened around the peak load. This suggests that the hole may significantly reduce the brittleness of the sample. The numerical method is employed to provide further insights on the internal deformation characteristics; the effect of hole sizes with diameters of 2–10 mm is also discussed. This paper provides quantified analysis methodology, monitoring technology, and borehole optimization for pressure relief drilling and burst proneness reduction in high coal burst-prone seams.

The recovery of top coal in the caving face directly impacts the efficiency of mining coal resources. The geological conditions and mining parameters are well known to be significant influences on the recovery of top coal. This study focused on the 9-301 working face, which is located in a thick coal seam with a large dip angle. The influences of the coal seam’s dip angle, mining direction, and coal caving mode and interval on the recovery were analyzed using PFC2D simulation. Field trials were also carried out. The results of the numerical calculations show that the recovery of top coal is clearly affected by the dip angle, with recovery decreasing as the dip angle is increased. Mining from the top to bottom along the dip of the coal seam is beneficial to improve recovery. The top-coal recovery using the multicycle-sequence coal caving method is higher than when using single-sequence coal caving and single-interval coal caving modes. The top-coal recovery using “one cutting and one caving” (coal caving interval of 0.8 m) was higher than that under two cuttings and one caving (coal caving interval of 1.6 m). During the field trials, the recovery of top coal under different caving intervals and modes was measured. The results show that the recovery of top coal is optimal when using one cutting and one caving with multicycle-sequence coal caving modes. The field measurements are consistent with the simulation results. The results of this study can help guide additional research for optimizing the recovery of top coal from thick coal seams with large dip angles.