Academic literature on the topic 'Strain burst proneness'

The rock burst proneness of coal is closely related to the coal mass structure. Therefore, the initial crack distribution of high burst proneness coal, its fracture development, and failure process under loading conditions are of great significance for the prediction of rock burst. In this study, high burst proneness coal is used to prepare experiment samples. The surface cracks of the samples are identified and recorded. The internal crack of the sample is detected by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology to determine the crack ratio of each sample. Then, 3D-CAD technology is used to restore the initial crack of the samples. Uniaxial compression test is carried out, and AE properties are recorded in the test. The stress-strain curve, the distribution of the fractural points within the sample at different stress states, and the relationship between ring count and stress are obtained. Results show that the stress-strain curves of high burst proneness coal are almost linear, to which the stress-ring count curves are similar. The distributions of fractural points in different bearing states show that the fracture points emerge in the later load stage and finally penetrate to form macrofracture, resulting in sample failure. This study reveals the initial crack distribution of coal with high burst proneness and the fracture development under bearing conditions, which provides a theoretical basis for the prediction technology of rock burst and technical support for the research of coal structure.

This paper gives a new rock burst prediction method of potential index, according to the rock deformation and failure of the rock and the relationship between energy transfer, the characteristics of uniaxial compression stress-strain entire process curve. The new prediction method of rock burst of energy with existing method for forecasting index was compared and analyzed. Testing study was made on the typical rocks of rhyolite, from the deep deposit of Niba mountain tunnel, Combined with the actual phenomen of rock burst, the rock burst potential index is verified to be able to show fairly well the rock burst proneness. Finally, a criterion of rock burst proneness is put forward.

Coal burst is a type of dynamic geological hazard in coal mine. In this study, a modified bursting energy index, which is defined as the ratio of elastic strain energy at the peak strength to the released strain energy density at the post-peak stage, was proposed to evaluate the coal burst proneness. The calculation method for this index was also introduced. Two coal mines (PJ and TJH coal mines) located in Ordos coalfield were used to verify the validity of the proposed method. The tests results indicate that modified bursting energy index increases linearly with increasing uniaxial compressive strength. The parameter A, which is used to fit relation between total input and elastic strain energy density, has a significant effect on the modified bursting energy index. A large value of parameter A means more elastic strain energy before the peak strength while a small value indicates most of input energy was dissipated. Finally, the coal burst proneness of these two coal mines was evaluated with the modified index. The results of modified index are consistent with that of laboratory tests, and more reasonable than that from original bursting energy index because it removed the dissipated strain energy from the total input strain energy density.

Deep coal mining is seriously affected by a combined dynamic disaster of rock burst and coal and gas outburst, but the influence mechanism of gas on this combined dynamic disaster is still not very clear, which is significantly different from the single type disasters. In this study, to explore the effect of gas on the coal-rock burst, a novel gas-solid coupling loading apparatus is designed to realize gas adsorption of coal sample with burst proneness and provide uniaxial loading environment under different gas pressure. A series of uniaxial compression tests of gas-containing coal with different gas pressure is carried out, and the energy dissipation process is monitored by an acoustic emission (AE) system. Results show that the macroscopic volume strain of the coal sample increases as gas adsorption and gas pressure increase under constant uniaxial loading pressure. Gas has the ability to expand the pores and natural fractures in coal sample by mechanical and physicochemical effects, which leads to a degradation in microstructure integrity of coal sample. With the increase of gas pressure, both the macrouniaxial compression strength (UCS) and elastic modulus show a downward trend; the UCS and elastic modulus of coal samples with 2 MPa gas pressure reduce by 58.78% and 48.82%, respectively, compared to those of the original coal samples. The main reason is that gas changes the pore-fissure structure and the mesoscopic stress environment inside the coal sample. Owing to the gas, the accumulated elastic energy of the gas-containing coal samples before failure reduces significantly, whereas the energy dissipated during loading increases, and the energy release process in the postpeak stage is smoother, indicating the participation of gas weakens the burst proneness of the coal sample. This study is of important scientific value for revealing the mechanism of combined dynamic disaster and the critical occurrence conditions of coal-rock burst and coal and gas outburst.

As one of the most catastrophic dynamic hazards in underground coal mines, coal bursts have been a major safety concern around the world for many years. Although the coal bursts can occur in all cases of hard to soft coal if the right stress environment is created, the occurrence of coal bursts is closely related to the intrinsic mechanical properties of coal, such as the bursting proneness. In this study, a total of 27 coal specimens are selected in the open literature studies to obtain a group of fundament data, such as the mechanical parameters, four bursting proneness indices, stress-strain curves, and their geological conditions where the specimens were taken. The relationship between bursting proneness indices and the cohesion of the coal specimens is established by numerically fitting the stress-strain curves and theoretically deduction. By taking into account the coal heterogeneity, eight probability distribution functions are employed to assignment nonuniform cohesion to the numerical model and to study the influence of heterogeneity on bursting proneness. The results reveal that the coal cohesion, which combines the common advantages of the four proneness indices, can be used as bursting proneness index. In the research of heterogeneity, the coal bursting proneness will decrease with the increasing of cohesion scatter degree. The larger the cohesion scatter degree increase is, the lower the bursting proneness will be. The failure of coal specimen is more and more severe with the decrease of cohesion scatter degree. In addition, this paper provides two methods for assigning heterogeneous parameters to the numerical model. The contours of shear strain rate and plastic state between homogeneous and heterogeneous coal specimens are compared to study the failure types of coal specimens and to reveal the mechanism of violent failure in coal bursts.

The uniaxial cyclic loading tests have been conducted to study the mechanical behavior of dry and water saturated igneous rock with acoustic emission (AE) monitoring. The igneous rock samples are dried, naturally immersed, and boiled to get specimens with different water contents for the testing. The mineral compositions and the microstructures of the dry and water saturated igneous rock are also presented. The dry specimens present higher strength, fewer strains, and rapid increase of AE count subjected to the cyclic loading, which reflects the hard and brittle behavior and strong burst proneness of igneous rock. The water saturated specimens have lower peak strength, more accumulated strains, and increase of AE count during the cyclic loading. The damage of the igneous rocks with different water contents has been identified by the Felicity Ratio Analysis. The cyclic loading and unloading increase the dislocation between the mineral aggregates and the water-rock interactions further break the adhesion of the clay minerals, which jointly promote the inner damage of the igneous rock. The results suggest that the groundwater can reduce the burst proneness of the igneous rock but increase the potential support failure of the surrounding rock in igneous invading area. In addition, the results inspire the fact that the water injection method is feasible for softening the igneous rock and for preventing the dynamic disasters within the roadways and working faces located in the igneous intrusion area.

According to modern concepts, the state of highly stressed hard rock massifs is mostly caused by the effect of gravitational-tectonic stress fields. At that, a probability of brittle rock failure in a dynamic form is very high. Such failures are always accompanied by the significant energy release accumulated during the deformation process. Based on the experimental studies of deformation and failure processes in various types of rock samples from the Kola Peninsula deposits, we have proposed the criteria for classifying rocks as prone to rock bursts. The information for assessing the rock proneness to dynamic failures can be obtained by analysing the strain curve at the pre-peak section when tested on the ordinary presses and testing devices according to the standard methods. If we study the processes of rocks' deformation and energy accumulation under the triaxial loading mode, we can establish the parameters for the occurrence of dynamic failure of rocks. This, in turn, will allow identifying the conditions of such failure in the investigated rocks for a specific mining-engineering situation and, thereby, coming to a scientifically-based prediction of the rocks' proneness to dynamic rock pressure occurrences.

Abstract Coal burst proneness of coal mass is a leading factor of coal burst which is influenced by fissures. In this paper, the elastic strain energy (ESE) and residual energy index (REI) were used as coal burst proneness indicators. The calibrated PFC2D models of coal specimens with various fissure configurations were established, and uniaxial compression tests were conducted. It was found that the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), ESE, and REI for three types of fissured coal specimen were similar. The aforementioned three parameters decrease as the inclination angle increases from 0° to 30°. On the other hand, these parameters increase as the inclination angle increases from 30° to 90°. Through the coal burst proneness comparison of various fissure configurations, it was found that the coal burst proneness in the condition of two coplanar-parallel fissures was greater than that in the condition of a single fissure, whereas the coal burst proneness in the condition of two non-coplanar-parallel fissures was the lowest. The crack initiation stress, crack initiation stress level, and elastic strain energy distribution could explain the influence mechanism of fissures on the coal burst proneness. These results can be used as a guideline for forecasting and preventing coal burst.

AbstractThe progressive microcracking processes in a burst-prone Class II rock, Kuru granite, and a non-burst-prone Class I rock, Fauske marble were investigated, aiming to reveal the physics of rock burst and the difference in burst-proneness in Class I and Class II rocks. The cylindrical rock specimens of Kuru granite and Fauske marble were uniaxially loaded to various levels in both pre- and post-peak stages, which was monitored by Acoustic emission technique. After that, the thin sections parallel and perpendicular to the loading direction were prepared from each unloaded specimen. The observed intergranular and intragranular cracks in thin sections were quantitatively analyzed in their length, width and orientation as well as the fracturing modes. It was found that extensional intergranular cracking dominated the damaging process in Kuru granite in the pre-peak stage. In the post-peak stage, both intergranular and intragranular cracks increased abruptly. The granite specimen finally failed in splitting. Intragranular shear cracking in calcite dominated the damaging process in Fauske marble. A number of shear fractures formed in the marble and finally the marble failed along a shear fracture zone. It was deduced that, under low confining stress, the fracturing process in Kuru granite of Class II was dominated by extensional fracturing in the direction of σ1, which dissipated a relatively small portion of the strain energy in the rock and the remaining energy was released for rock ejection. The fracturing in Fauske marble of Class I was dominated by intragranular shear cracking, which dissipated the entire strain energy.

The increasing demand for resources and depletion of near ground mineral resources caused deeper mining operations under high-stress and high-temperature rock mass conditions. As a results of this, strain burst, which is the sudden and violent release of stored strain energy during dynamic brittle failure of rocks, has become more prevalent and created considerable safety risks damaging underground infrastructures. This research focuses on the development of experimental methodologies to better understand the fundamental knowledge concerning the failure mechanism of strain burst and the influence of thermal damage, high confining pressure and various loading rate on the overall mechanical behaviour of highly brittle granitic rocks leading to strain burst. Strain burst is related to the elastic stored strain energy and how this stored energy is released during the unstable spontaneous failure. Therefore, it is significant to investigate the energy state during strain burst from the viewpoint of energy theory. In this sense, circumferential strain controlled quasi-static tests on Class II rocks over a wide range of confining pressures at different heat-treatment temperatures were conducted to capture the snap-back behaviour and calculate excess strain energy that is responsible for the spontaneous instability. A new energy calculation method associated with acoustic emission (AE) was developed to express the propensity of strain burst and investigate the post-peak energy distribution characteristics for brittle rocks under the coupling influence of confinement and temperature. In order to quantify the micro-crack density and reveal the micro-fracture characteristics of the brittle rocks exposed to various temperatures, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis was also conducted. This is highly relevant to link the excess strain energy and the main failure mechanism triggering strain burst under high-temperature condition. The failure process of strain burst is the outcome of the unstable growth and coalescence of secondary micro-cracks. If the dissipative energy to grow pre-existing cracks and the secondary cracks is smaller than the elastic stored strain energy in rock masses, the residual strain energy will be released suddenly in the form of kinetic energy, resulting in ejecting high-velocity rock fragments. Therefore, understanding the crack initiation and propagation in rocks is of great concern for engineering stability and security. As an intrinsic property of rocks to resist crack initiation and propagation, the rock fracture toughness is the most significant material property in fracture mechanics. In this respect, the three-point bending method was applied using cracked chevron notched semi-circular bend (CCNSCB) granite specimens subjected to different temperatures under a wide range of loading rates in pure mode I. A suitable relation for the dimensionless stress intensity factor (𝑌∗) of SCB with chevron notch samples were presented based on the normalised crack length (𝛼) and half-distance between support rollers (𝑆/2). The minimum dimensionless stress intensity factor (𝑌𝑚𝑖𝑛∗) of CCNSCB specimens were determined using an analytical method, i.e., Bluhm’s slice synthesis method. In this study, the influence of thermal damage and loading rate on the quasi-static mode I fracture toughness and the energy-release rate using CCNSCB method was investigated. In the deep mining process, the rock mass is subjected to a dynamic disturbance caused by blasting, and mechanical drilling resulting in dynamic fractures in the forms of strain burst, slabbing, and spalling. The dynamic rock fracture parameters, including dynamic initiation fracture toughness and fracture energy which are an important manifestation of dynamic rock failure (strain burst) in deep underground engineering and they are of great practical significance to assess the dynamic fracture behaviour of deep rock masses. Since deep rock engineering operations in high temperature and high pressure environment is prone to strain burst, the influence of thermally induced damage on the dynamic failure parameters of granite specimens was investigated. The damage evolution of granitic rocks were studied over a wide range of loading rates to reveal the rate dependency of strain burst. Dynamic fracture toughness tests were carried out on granite under different temperatures and impact loadings using a Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) apparatus at Monash University. With dynamic force balance achieved in the dynamic tests, the stable-unstable transition of the crack propagation crack was observed and the dynamic initiation fracture toughness was calculated from the dynamic peak load. The thermal damage influence on strain burst characteristics of brittle rocks under true-triaxial loading-unloading conditions was investigated using the AE and kinetic energy analyses. A unique strain burst testing system enabling to simulate the creation of excavation at the State Key Laboratory for Geomechanics and Deep Underground Engineering in Beijing (China) was used to replicate strain burst condition. Time-domain and frequency-domain responses AE waves related to strain burst were studied, and the damage evolution was quantified by b-values, cumulative AE energy and events rates that can be used as warning signals to rock failure. The ejection velocities of the rock fragments from the free face of the granite specimens were used to calculate kinetic energies which can be used as an indicator for quantitatively evaluating the intensity of strain burst. Based on the energy evolution characteristics of brittle rocks under uniaxial and triaxial compression, true-triaxial loading-unloading and three-point bending, new strain burst proneness indexes and strain burst criterion were proposed. The effects of temperature, confinement and loading rate on strain burst proneness were discussed. This study aims to advance the understanding on underlying processes that govern the macro-behaviour of brittle rocks during strain burst and make use of this insight to further advance our current predictive capabilities of strain burst with references to large-scale underground mining. Using the developed experimental methodologies in this study, fractures around an excavation to reduce the amount of excess strain energy leading to strain burst can be determined and ultimately incipient strain burst in deep mines can be predicted avoiding potential hazards. Using the methodology for forecasting of strain burst in this research can be used for enhanced understanding of the design of rock support in strain burst-prone areas in deep mining activities. The findings of this study will facilitate achieving a better and comprehensive understanding of the damage process during strain burst in deep mines. This study underpins the development of better and more efficient prediction methods for strain burst which will lead to better planning guidelines and ultimately safer deep underground working conditions.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, 2019