Fold catastrophe model and chaotic mechanism of coal and gas outburst

For simplified analytic model of coal and gas outburst in coal heading face, this paper pays much attention to the TPEF (Total Potential Energy Function) of the system. From the analyses of TPEF, the authors conclude that the model belongs to fold catastrophe model and can be used to deduce the suddenly changing conditions of coal and gas outburst. Furthermore, based on the dynamic model of system evolvement, the relationship between influence of outside environment and response of the system is found and defined to be a complicated nonlinear process. When the influence of system itself is equivalent to that of outside environment, chaotic phenomenon will occur in the evolving process of system and the way to chaos is realized with bifurcation of period doublings.