The author elaborated the results of studies on Surface Subsidence in various coal fileds in Japan(Kushiro), England(NCB collieries) and Republic of South Africa (Sigma). Firstly, the author analysed the sphere at goaf area where fallen rock debris solidified at bottom part while upper rock strata deteriorated by cracking caused by earth pressure. And it was found that the vertical wise extent of the sphere was as same as face length mined. It was also found that the maximum subsidence occured within the sphere showed similar trend to those theories of Area Complete Exraction developed by Lehman et al.
Secondly, surface subsidence was largely affected by (k
i) which indicated breaking factor of fallen rock debris, and which was built in the author's Subsidence Formulae. In case, if representative rock strata in the sphere had large value of Young's Modulus, and if it was homogeneous and thick, surface subsidence was given small ratio, and took longer period for its termination. Under such circumstances, k
i was found to be small. On the contrary, if characteristics of rock strata was quite the reverse, subsidence ratio was large, terminating period was short and k
i was turned to large value.
It was particularly noted that in case of the second extraction of lower coal seam after 2 years in time of completion of upper coal seam extraction, drastic change of ratio and termination period was observed. And in this case, breaking factor (k
i) was turned to large value despite that k
i of in-situ solid state rock strata was very small.
Hence, the author predicted that the Subsidence Formulae developed by the author can be widely utilized to detect surface subsidence phenomena in various coal fields in various coal producing countries.
View full abstract