Research on controlling gas overrun in a working face based on gob-side entry retaining by utilizing ventilation type “Y”

To determine the characteristics of air leakage concerning a “Y” type ventilation in gob-side entry retaining with roof cutting, pressure relief, and the law of a resulted gas accumulation (GA), research is conducted by employing the CFD simulation incorporated with the gauged parameters of working face (WF) mining to analyze the air leakage of “Y” type ventilation. For this purpose, the 1201 fully mechanized coal mining face in the south Wu mining location of the Daxing coal mine is taken as an illustrative example to study the air leakage in the “Y” type ventilation. So, the gas concentration (GC) issue surpassing the limit in the upper corner of the goaf was simulated. The results show that the goaf is formed into an open space when roof cutting and pressure relief technology along the goaf is implemented. The air pressure at the upper corner of the WF would be the lowest, which is only 1.12 Pa. The airflow of air leakage under a pressure difference would move from the gob-side entry retaining to the goaf. Moreover, the simulation of mine ventilation indicates that the volume of air leakage positively correlates with the length of gob-side entry retaining. When the WF is advanced 500 m ahead, the maximum volume of air leakage would reach 247 m(3)/min within the range of 500–1300 m, and then the rate of air leakage gradually would decrease. When the WF is advanced at 1300 m, the air leakage would become the smallest, which is 175 m(3)/min. When gas control is under consideration, the effect of gas extraction would be best with the buried pipe whose depth and diameter are set to 4.0 m and 400 mm, respectively. So, the GC in the upper corner would become 0.37%. After the high-level borehole with a 120 mm diameter is mined, the GC in the deep goaf decreased to 3.52%, and the GC at the upper corner became further reduced to 0.21%. While the high-level borehole gas is extracted by employing the extraction system of the high-concentration gas, the extraction system of low-concentration gas is utilized to extract the upper corner gas of the WF, thus, the problem of gas overrun was resolved satisfactorily. During the recovery period of the mining, the GC at each gauging point was less than 0.8%, which effectively guided the secure production in the Daxing coal mine and provided a theoretical foundation to control gas overrun during the mining process.