Coal remains the
largest contributor to the energy structure of
China. However, coal production is frequently threatened by groundwater
inrush accidents caused by hydraulically conductive faults. Despite
the threat of such accidents, research on methods for evaluating fault
hydraulic conductive property without hydraulic tests has seldom been
conducted. Many faults exist in coal mines in Shandong, China. However,
due to economic and technical limitations, hydrological tests are
rarely performed and can be performed on only a few faults. The hydraulic
conductive property of many faults is unknown, which has prevented
serious groundwater inrush accidents and casualties from being avoided.
Using accessible geological exploration data, we propose a method
for evaluating fault hydraulic conductive property in the Jining coalfield,
Shandong, China. Mudstone smearing, lithologic contact relations on
the fault plane, geostress, water pressure, plastic deformation of
mudstone, and the argillaceous content of the fault zone were selected
as factors, and six quantitative indicators were proposed: the shale
gouge ratio (SGR), lithologic juxtaposition diagram (LJD), fault closure
coefficient (FCC), water pressure coefficient (WPC), mudstone deformation
coefficient (MDC), and shale smear factor (SSF). The fuzzy analytic
hierarchy process (FAHP) was applied to calculate the weights and
establish lateral and vertical hydraulic conductive property (L and
V) evaluation models for faults. The fault hydraulic conductivities
were then classified as weak, medium, or strong. The hydrochemical
experiments and the limited number of exposed faults were used for
validation. Hence, the evaluation models were considered effective
at determining the hydraulic conductive property of faults in the
Jining coalfield, China.