Influence of pre-existing crack on rockburst characteristics in coal-rock combination: A laboratory investigation

The existing cracks in the roof rock are critical to stability of the coal-rock combination structure during mining activities, which is vital for safe exploitation in coal mines. However, the physical mechanisms by which preexisting crack in the roof rock induces rockburst in coal mines are still poorly understood. In this study, to investigate the rockburst characteristics in an underground mine, triaxial compressive experiments on coal-rock combinations containing a pre-existing crack in the roof rock were carried out. Both mechanical and failure behaviours of composite specimen containing a pre-existing crack were analysed. The testing results showed that a pre-existing crack in roof significantly affects mechanical properties of combinations. The average peak stress and average elastic modulus of specimen exhibit an M-shaped change trend when dip angle is in a range of 0 degrees-90 degrees. The average peak strain increases before decreasing with increase in dip angle. In addition, the roof rock is more likely to fail when it contains a pre-existing crack. Both the initial failure location and failure pattern of combinations are highly related to angle of pre-existing crack. A novel rockburst model considering in-situ stress and pre-existing crack was proposed to determine the physical mechanism of rockburst. The findings are useful to understand characteristics and physical mechanism of rockburst in mine engineering.