Accurate determination of the permeability of crushed coal medium is the basis for the study of their permeability characteristics. To investigate the permeability characteristics of this special porous medium composed of crushed coal particles, the permeability parameters of crushed coal specimens of different initial porosities were measured by designing a lateral-limit compression seepage test system. Parameters were determined separately for specimens of different initial porosities. (1) the Reynolds number distribution region characterising the seepage state was determined and obtained. Specimens with initial porosity distribution between 0.02 and 0.08, and seepage Reynolds number distribution in the low-permeability zone, under Darcy flow; (2) the intrinsic permeability of the crushed coal medium was obtained by using the Ergun equation. The complex inverse proportional relationship between the drag coefficient and Reynolds number was derived; (3) Through the determination of the permeability of the crushed coal medium, the mean value of βK value was obtained to be about 45.7, and the analysis of the permeability of porous medium can determine its critical permeability. The relationship between the Forchheimer number Fo and critical Reynolds number was measured. The results indicate that it conforms to a linear distribution. In-depth analysis of these two parameters can be used to explore the flow transition process between laminar, transition, and turbulent flow. This study provides insight into the permeability characteristics of the media in fractured coal bodies.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

No abstract

Water content is an important factor in the deformation-destruction process of coal bodies. To analyze the influence of water on the creep acoustic emission (AE) characteristics of coal rock surrounding a borehole, we conducted graded loading creep AE tests of single-hole specimens with different water contents (0%, 4%, 8% and water-saturation) under uniaxial loading. The findings include the following: the water content affects the creep mechanical properties of the coal body around a borehole. The creep transient strain and steady-state strain increased exponentially with rising water content; the saturated specimen showed the highest increase, reaching 44.5% and 28.6%, respectively. The specimen water content affected the cumulative ringing count (CRC) and the axial strain during creep. The axial strain increased with rising water content, the CRC increased linearly with rising axial strain. The higher the water content, the greater the CRC rise. At different stress levels, the CRC in the 4%, 8% and saturated water content specimens changed by 43%, 53% and 74%, respectively. The AE ringing rate showed a pattern of grow–decline–stabilize at each creep stage. The AEs decreased significantly with the rising water content and the creep curve lagged behind the AE data. This paper provides guidelines for gas extraction, borehole maintenance and AE detection.