LAUSR

There are a large amount of steeply dipping coal seams deposited in China, the safe and effective extraction of which are the challenge for coal operators due to the complicated geological characteristics, in particular, when the underground roadway is excavated in the steeply dipping coal seams with limited seam distance. The Universal Distinct Element Code (UDEC) was adopted in the present research to explore the stress distribution of surrounding rock of the roadway. Based on the numerical simulation, the damage coefficient was proposed and then used to classify the roof conditions into four groups. After that, the asymmetric support technique was proposed and put into practical applications. It is indicated that the stress concentration on the floor is the main feature of the extraction of steeply dipping coal seams. Moreover, the distributions of the maximum vertical stress and horizontal stress which are much different from each other mainly attributed to the effect of the large dip angle. This research also verified the feasibility of using the asymmetric and partition support technique to maintain the integrity of the surrounding rock, as from the case study conducted at the 12032 longwall coal face of Zhongwei coal mine.