Previous theories on coal spontaneous combustion (CSC) prevention and control mostly focused on how to improve the CSC-inhibiting effect instead of the failure of the inhibitors. Due to the influence of air leakage in the goaf, the inhibitors and the water in the coal evaporate continuously, thus making the effect of the inhibitors to inhibit coal spontaneous combustion weakened or even null. Due to the complex environment inside the goaf, it is difficult for personnel to enter and collect data such as coal moisture. Therefore, a three-dimensional model of the mining area was built to study the changes in coal moisture inside the goaf under different air leakage conditions. The analysis of the experimental results shows that the larger the air leakage volume is, the faster the moisture evaporates inside the goaf. The moisture of the coal body was reduced from 30% to about 5% in 15, 11 and 7 days when the air leakage was 0.02, 0.03 and 0.04 m3/s, respectively. The law of moisture evaporation at different times and locations in the mining area was also studied and it was found that the evaporation of moisture from the coal body in the mining area was location- and time-dependent.

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