Importance of the Gas Factor in the Process

of Formation of Outburst Zones in Coal Veins

Khojayev Rustam, Gabaidullin Ravgat, Filatov Igor, and Vlasova Lyudmila
Research Centre GeoMark LLC, Karaganda, Kazakhstan
Abstract. Both the theoretical research and the field studies were conducted in
order to discover regularities and criteria of origin of outbursts stipulated by the
kinetics of the methane desorption from coal in the process of its destruction.
The results of the research conducted have provided the basis for the
calculation procedure for gas emitted in the process of outburst and its pressure in
the gas collecting main in respect to the size range of the bulk of coal within it.
Keywords: Sudden outburst of coal and gas, desorption of methane from coal,
rock pressure, critical fractional composition.
It is widely accepted that one of the main factors determining the origin and
development of coal and gas outburst is a gas-dynamic characteristics of the coal
bed.
We have carried out theoretical studies and field observations [1] in order to
establish laws and parameters of coal and gas outbursts due to the kinetics of
desorption of methane from coal at their destruction.
It was established [2] that the amount of gas (cm3/g), which can be released
from coal during its destruction, depends not only on its fracturing, but also on its
sorption properties.
This relation is expressed by the equations
Q
q b
i
= i i
100
, (1)
q (t)a i =' , (2)
'

( ) t e r =
=

1
6 1
2
1
2
2
, (3)
r
D
R A
i t
i
= 2
2 , (4)
612 K. Rustam et al.
where Qi - amount of methane that is desorbed from the coal at a pressure drop on
its surface from the original to atmospheric, m3;
qi - amount of methane that is desorbed from one ton of coal being composed
of gas particles with the mean radius Ri , m3/t;
bi - percentage of fractions of mean radius Ri in the coal, it is determined by
the screen test of coal, %;
(t) - ratio of gas that is desorbing in a time t to sorption capacity of coal, it
is calculated on the basis of sorption characteristics of coal as determined by
experiment;
- sequential term of series;
Di - average coefficient of methane diffusion in coal for this change in
pressure at the sorption unit IGD (Institute of Mining, Moscow) [3], m2/sec;
A - adsorption coefficient of methane on coal:
A = a / Q ; 0 (5)
Q p p 0 0 = /( , (6)
a - sorption capacity of coal (m3/t), it is determined at the sorption unit;
- coal porosity (m3/t), it is determined from true and apparent specific
gravities of coal;
p/p0 - original pressure of methane in cola taken relative to atmospheric;
- compression degree of methane.
Accordingly, the amount of methane that can be released from the coal bed in
the boundaries of formed gas collector on seam failure and simultaneous drop of
gas pressure on the surface of the fractured coal from the original to atmospheric
(m3/t), can be calculated by the formula
Q mQV m i i i = / , (7)
where Q i - amount of methane desorbing from 1 ton of coal from each split with
the thickness m i , m3;
m i - thickness of separate splits of coal making the bed, m;
V - volume of desorbing coal in the collector boundaries, m3 ;
- volume density of coal, t/m3.
However, in the calculation of the amount of gas in the gas collector, in
addition to methane desorbing in on the coal failure, it is necessary to account for
the free gas being in the pores of coal and taking part in the expansion:
Importance of the Gas Factor in the Process of Formation of Outburst Zones 613
Q = Q + Q0 , (8)
where Q0 - volume of free gas releasing from coal is calculated by the formula
(6), m3.
The volume of free gas Q0 can also be set as equal ~1015% of the potential
methane retention capacity (at P = 5,0 MPa).
The pressure of desorbing gas from the coal seam P in the zone of influence of
the rock drift and accumulating in the formed cavities of the gas collector
primarily depends on the amount of gas liberated Qtotal, and the total volume of
cavities (pores and cracks) in the boundaries of the gas collector.
To calculate the pressure of the free gas in the collector we use an equation that
combines the gas laws Boyle-Mariotte and Gay-Lussac:
PV
T
PV
T
= 0 0
0
, (9)
where V0 - gas space under the pressure P0 =101,325*10-3 MPa and at the
temperature T0 = 2730 K,
V - gas space under the pressure P at the temperature T, we accept T = 3030 .
The methane volume V0 under normal conditions (P0 and T0 ) is calculated by
the Mendeleev-Clapeyron equation:
PV
m
M
= RT , (10)
where m - substance weight, g
m = m Q 0 . (11)
m 0 - volume density of gas under P0 and at T0, m0 CH4 = 0,717 g/m3 ;
M - molar mass of substance, MCH4 = 16 g/mol;
R universal gas constant, R = 8,314 J /mK.
Thus,
V
mRT
MP 0
0
0
= , m3 (12)
Substitution the known values m0 CH4 = 0,717 g/m3 , MCH4 = 16 g/mol, R = 8,314
J /mK, P0 =101,325*10-3 MPa, T0 = 2730, into the equation (12), we obtain the
dependence of methane space V0 , under normal conditions on its amount Qtotal:
V0 Q = 1,004 , m3 (13)
614 K. Rustam et al.
In subsequent calculation the coefficient thrown away, assuming that V0 =
Qtotal.
Knowing that the coal volume in the boundaries of the gas collector V, we get
free gas space, i.e. the volume of pores and cracks V. As mentioned above, the
porosity of the fractured, prepared coal can be up to 0,1 m3/t and more. Therefore,
in the calculation we can accept V = 0,1V . Translating the formula (9) and
substituting the known values of variables, we get the pressure of free gas in the
gas collector that was generated in the coal seam in the zone of influence of the
rock drift:
P
PV T
V
= 0 0
0
, (14)
Considering that we know the numerical values P0 =101,325*10-3 MPa, T0 =
2730, T = 3030, substituting them in (14), we get:
P
wQ
mS

i K
= , (15)
Where mi - thickness of coal split (layer), m
SK - area of gas collector in the plan, m2;
w - gas pressure factor, accounting for the change in V and t0, for
methane w = 11,25*10-3,MPa.
The obtained dependences made it possible to determine the gas pressure in the
gas collector on coal samples that were selected in the lower layer of the bed d6 of
the Eastern wing of the V.Lenin mine. The total weight was 3450 g, the amount of
factions nine. The calculation results are shown in the Table 1.
These studies formed the basis of calculation methods of the gas volume
liberated and pressure under which the gas was in the collector, with the fractional
composition of the coal mass in the collector.
According to the the analysis of the research results and calculations made it
was found that the fractional composition of coal has a great impact on gas
emission of coal and as a consequence on the pressure. On this basis we made the
series of calculations of the specific energy per unit volume of the rock mass with
different fractional composition. The Table 2 below shows the results of
calculation of the parameters of the forming gas-coal collector with the critical
fractional composition: d = 0,25 mm (content 57%), d = 0,5 mm (content 15%), d
= 0,8 mm (content 15% ), d = 1,6 mm (content of 5%) at the rock volume of 200
m3 of various porosities and conditions of collector existence during 10 minutes.
The figure 1 shows aerodynamic characteristics of the parameters of the gas
collector formed by the joint influence of rock pressure and gas factor.
Importance of the Gas Factor in the Process of Formation of Outburst Zones 615
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
P,
Q, 3/
0,2 0,5 0,25 0,3 0,4
*10-1,
P
Fig.1 Aerodynamic characteristics of the parameters of gas collector
616 K. Rustam et al.
Table.1 Results of screen test of the coal samples of the lower layer of the bed d6 of the Eastern wing of V. I.
Lenin mine
Fraction size, m < 0,00025 0,00025-
0,0005
0,0005-0,001 0,001-
0,002
0,002-
0,003
0,003-
0,005
0,005-
0,007
0,007-
0,01
> 0,01
Ri, mm 0,125 0,375 0,75 1,5 2,5 4,0 6,0 8,5 20,0
g % g % g % g % g % g % g % g % g %
bi 238 6,9 693 20,1 1016 29,4 282 8,2 207 6,0 255 7,4 139 4,0 337 9,8 283 8,2
'(10) 0,121 0,0668 0,066 0,0584 0,058 0,0579 0,05789 0,05787 0,05786
qibi 17,12 26,85 35,28 9,5776 6,96 8,569 4,631 11,343 9,488
'(20) 0,124 0,0668 0,0624 0,059 0,0583 0,058 0,0579 0,0579 0,0578
qibi 17,120 26,853 36,685 9,676 6,992 8,586 4,634 11,346 9,489
'(60) 0,283 0,105 0,071 0,061 0,059 0,058 0,058 0,058 0,058
qibi 39,087 42,229 41,798 10,048 7,091 8,634 4,646 11,36 9,491
'(600) 0,726 0,297 0,156 0,089 0,070 0,063 0,060 0,059 0,058
qibi 100,155 119,450 91,785 14,599 8,377 9,270 4,800 11,550 9,52
'(104) 1,000 0,866 0,548 0,303 0,189 0,123 0,090 0,075 0,061
qibi 138,0 348,08 322,14 49,640 22,637 18,174 7,215 14,663 10,010
Calculation of gas pressure P(t) in the collector depending over time t, sec.:
P(10) = 6,1 MPa;
P(20) = 6,13 P;
P(60) = 6,76 P;
P(600) = 9,61 P;
P(104) = 17,82 P.
Importance of the Gas Factor in the Process of Formation of Outburst Zones 617
Table 2 Results of gas emission and specific power consumption calculation
Porosity
, 3/
Free gas volume
Q0, m3
Coefficient of methane
adsorption,
Total gas emission
Q, m3
Gas pressure , atm
Specific power consumption
, J/m3
0,086 2,88 6,94 2659 86,4 0,18
0,100 3,37 5,94 3250 105,5 0,28
0,150 5,05 3,96 3890 126,3 0,40
0,200 6,73 2,97 4796 155,7 0,61
0,250 8,47 2,38 5442 176,7 0,79
0,300 10,10 1,98 5666 184,0 0,85
Table 3 Basic data for selection of the gas-dynamic parameters of simulated outburst
t, sec d = 0,0002 m d = 0,00025m d =0,0003 m d = 0,0004 m d = 0,0005 m
, P Q, m3/s , P Q, m3/s , P Q, m3/s , P Q, m3/s , P Q, m3/s
500 9,5 5,844 1,6 0,972 3,0 1,834 15,7 9,666 15,2 9,356
750 16,4 6,755 9,3 3,827 0,96 0,395 1,55 0,637 15,6 6,421
1000 20,6 6,345 13,9 4,292 7,2 2,214 4,10 1,250 0,36 0,111
1250 23,4 5,774 17,1 4,210 11,4 2,818 1,38 0,392 2,1 0,511
1500 25,5 5,240 19,4 3,985 14,6 2,991 3,60 0,743 3,7 0,755
2500 30,4 3,750 24,9 3,068 22,0 2,708 12,5 1,662 5,0 0,617
3500 32,9 2,899 27,8 2,448 25,9 2,081 18,8 1,650 11,6 1,019
4500 34,3 2,352 29,7 2,030 28,4 1,948 22,1 1,549 15,8 1,082
5500 35,2 1,971 30,9 1,731 30,2 1,694 24,5 1,375 18,8 1,055
6500 35,6 1,691 31,8 1,507 31,6 1,497 26,4 1,250 21,1 1,001
7500 35,9 1,4771 32,4 1,331 32,6 1,340 27,8 1,143 22,9 0,942
618 K. Rustam et al.
The analysis of the results shown in the Table 2 and characteristics in the
Figure 1 confirms that with a fraction of less than 0.0003 m and their total content
in the gas-coal medium of the collector of not less than 57%, the potential energy
can be converted into kinetic, whereupon there is coal and gas outburst. Under
these conditions, the energy density of coal failure makes more than 0.79 MJ/m3,
what is consistent with the researches of other scientists and confirms the
appropriateness of the problem statement and the studies made by us of the
theoretical foundations of the mechanism of unloosening coal and gas outburst.
Furthermore, the results of the studies clearly indicate that a certain fractional
composition causes the occurrence of crushing waves that in turn alters the
fractional composition and consequently the process can reach the critical level at
which the gas-dynamic conditions occur.
Conclusions
1. The crushing wave has an essential role in forming of ourburst-prone situations
and this wave is characterized by speed and breaking shear stresses.
2. The minimum and maximum speeds of crushing waves at certain values of
porosity are set.
3. On the basis of the theoretical researches carried out and field studies we
determined the common factors and the parameters of occurrence of coal and
gas outbursts, driven by the methane desorption kinetics due to the coal failure.
4. We determined the pressure of the free gas in the gas collector formed in the
coal seam in the zone of influence of the rock drift and aerodynamic
characteristics of the collector formed as a result of the impact of mining
pressure and gas factor.
5. It is found that with certain fractional composition of coal the potential energy
can pass into kinetic energy that causes the coal and gas outburst.