Gas outburst affected by original rock stress direction

Abstract

In this paper, it was determined that all of the three-dimensional principal stresses increase with depth and that both the maximum and the minimum stresses tend to be aligned in the horizontal orientation. The numerical simulation model was built using the software FLAC^3D to simulate two times, as in two different states of original rock stress, respectively; this simulation was used to investigate how the original rock stress affects the gas outburst risk. The results suggest that an outburst is most likely to happen when the maximum original rock stress is perpendicular to the roadway, rather than parallel to the roadway. The results were demonstrated to be correct by a field experiment. The results suggest that most of the roadways in gas outburst risk coal mines should be designed to lie parallel to the maximum stress direction to avoid the high stress concentration in front of the heading face, thereby reducing the gas outburst risk.