Journal of Applied Science and Engineering

Published by Tamkang University Press

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Mining-Height Effects on Pressure Relief and Gas Outburst Control in Long-Distance Ultra-Thin Lower Protective-Seam Mining

 2027

 Volume 36

Mingjie Zhang1,2, Jinbo Zhang1,2, Zhihong Tan1,2, and Zhe Li1,2

1State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base for Gas Geology and Gas Control, Henan Province, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454003, China

2School of Safety Science and Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454003, China

Received: July 15, 2026
Accepted: September 08, 2026
Publication Date: October 09, 2026

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Spatial relationship between the protective and protected seams.

 Copyright The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.

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Mining an ultra-thin lower protective seam alone may provide insufficient pressure relief because of the limited mining height, whereas excessive co-mining of adjacent rock increases the engineering burden associated with rock excavation, transportation, hoisting, waste-rock handling, and coal-quality control. To address this problem, this study investigates a reasonable coal-soft-rock co-mining height for the long-distance ultra-thin lower protective Seam I-8 at Zhongtai Mine. The heights of the overburden failure zones were first estimated theoretically under different mining heights. RFPA2D simulations were subsequently conducted for three representative mining heights of 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 m to compare the evolution of overburden failure, the gas permeability response, and the expansion strain of Seam II-1. Among the three simulated cases, increasing the mining height from 0.5 to 1.0 m markedly enhanced the pressure-relief response of the protected seam, whereas the additional improvement from 1.0 to 1.5 m was comparatively limited. At a mining height of 1.0 m, the maximum gas permeability coefficient of Seam II-1 reached approximately 160 m²·MPa⁻²·d⁻¹, and the maximum expansion strain reached 6.13‰. Considering the pressure-relief performance and the additional rock excavation associated with a larger mining height, a mining height of 1.0 m was selected for field implementation. The field scheme consisted of mining the 0.5 m-thick Seam I-8 together with approximately 0.5 m of soft roof rock and applying pressure-relief gas drainage. The maximum pure methane drainage rate reached 14 m³/min, and the maximum gas content measured after drainage was 1.83 m³/t. These results indicate that the 1.0 m coal-soft rock co-mining scheme can provide effective pressure relief and regional gas outburst control under the geological and mining conditions investigated in this study.

Keywords: ultra-thin lower protective seam; coal-soft-rock co-mining; mining height; gas outburst control

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