Fracture Mechanism of Hard Main Roof and Determining the Width of Coal Pillars when Extracting Flat-lying Coal Seams

In underground coal mining, the stability of roadways and gob-side entry depends on the coal pillar width. An unreasonable width of the coal pillar will cause the roadway to be in a dangerous zone of influence of the abutment pressure, leading to severe roadway deformation. This paper studies the fracture mechanism of the hard main roof and reasonable coal pillar width to protect the stability of gob-side entry driving. The research results show that when mining a coal seam under a hard main roof, the console of the main roof on the edge of the coal seam has the form of hinge structure. The great load of the roof layers and the rotation of the console are the main causes leading to the variation of the stress field in the coal seam. According to the development law of the stress field, after the main roof completes the collapse process, the peak of the maximum stress will move deep into the solid coal seam, and on the edge of the coal seam it will form a low-stress zone. Research results from the case of Seam #11 of Khe Cham coal mine, Vietnam show that the gob-side entry will be well stabilized when the narrow coal pillar between it and the boundary of the gob is 4–5 m.