The Field Monitoring Experiment of the Roof Strata Movement in Coal Mining Based on DFOS

Mining deformation of roof strata is the main cause of methane explosion, water inrush, and roof collapse accidents amid underground coal mining. To ensure the safety of coal mining, the distributed optical fiber sensor (DFOS) technology has been applied in the 150,313 working face by Yinying Coal Mine in Shanxi Province, north China to monitor the roof strata movement, so as to grasp the movement law of roof strata and make it serve for production. The optical fibers are laid out in the holes drilled through the overlying strata on the roadway roof and BOTDR technique is utilized to carry out the on-site monitoring. Prior to the on-site test, the coupling test of the fiber strain in the concrete anchorage, the calibration test of the fiber strain coefficient of the 5-mm steel strand (SS) fiber, and the test of the strain transfer performance of the SS fiber were carried out in the laboratory. The approaches for fiber laying-out in the holes and fiber’s spatial positioning underground the coal mine have been optimized in the field. The indoor test results show that the high-strength SS optical fiber has a high strain transfer performance, which can be coupled with the concrete anchor with uniform deformation. This demonstrated the feasibility of SS fiber for monitoring strata movement theoretically and experimentally; and the law of roof strata fracturing and collapse is obtained from the field test results. This paper is a trial to study the whole process of dynamic movement of the deformation of roof strata. Eventually the study results will help Yinying Coal Mine to optimize mining design, prevent coal mine accidents, and provide detailed test basis for DFOS monitoring technique of roof strata movement.