The deformation and damage characteristics of coal are
the important
foundation that affects the fracturing potential of coal reservoirs
and the development plan of coalbed methane (CBM). To reveal the influence
regulation of primary fractures and the bedding angle of coal on its
failure and provide theoretical basis for CBM development, raw coal
samples of no 16 coal seam in Wenjiaba Coal Mine, Zhijin County, Bijie
City with different bedding angles were selected as the research object,
and uniaxial compression tests were carried out on them, and CT scanning
and crack reconstruction before and after sample failure were carried
out. The results show that (1) the compressive strength, elastic modulus,
and Poisson’s ratio of coal show a strong bedding angle effect,
and the changing trend of each index is basically the same. The coal
samples with bedding angles of 0 and 90° are the highest, while
the coal samples with bedding angles of 30° are the lowest, and
the overall distribution is an approximate “U” with
the increase in bedding angle. With the increase in bedding angle
of 0–90°, the failure modes of coal samples are tension-shear
combined failure, shear-slip failure, and splitting tension failure
in turn. (2) The observation of raw coal and CT scanning show that
the primary cracks in coal samples are well developed, especially
in the lower part of 0° samples, the cracks in 30° samples,
60° samples, and 90° samples are evenly distributed and
develop at a certain angle with the weak bedding surface, and microcracks
parallel to and nearly perpendicular to the weak bedding surface are
developed in 45° samples. At the same time, banded minerals in
coal and rock samples are also well developed. (3) The characteristics
of crack propagation and evolution in coal samples with different
bedding dip angles are significantly different. The bedding dip angles
and primary cracks of coal seam have a great influence on crack propagation.
With different bedding angles, the propagation modes are different.
The crack propagation mainly includes two ways: forming a certain
angle with bedding and extending along the bedding plane. (4) The
fracture characteristic parameters of coal in the primary state and
after failure have the same law with the bedding dip angle, showing
a trend of high at both ends and low in the middle, which is an irregular
“U”-shaped distribution and has a similar law with mechanical
characteristic parameters.