Roof Movement and Failure Behavior When Mining Extra-Thick Coal Seams Using Upward Slicing Longwall-Roadway Cemented Backfill Technology

A novel and environmental-friendly backfill mining method known as upward slicing longwall-roadway cemented backfill (USLCB) technology has recently been proposed and successfully applied in mines extracting extra-thick coal seams located under sensitive areas. This paper studies the effects USLCB had on roof movement and failure behavior using the mechanical analysis approach. The application of USLCB in the Gonggeyingzi Mine is taken as a case study with roof movement behavior being monitored over a single mining cycle, as well as over multiple mining cycles of different coal slices. In addition, backfill performance requirements to prevent roof failures where USLCB is implemented are studied. The results show that the deflection curves of the roof at the end of each mining cycle during mining the first and the six slices are symmetrical, but they change from asymmetrical to symmetrical during the mining progresses of the second slice to the fifth slice. The final state of roof movement after the first slice, and through to the fifth slice, displays an obvious “flat bottom” pattern in the middle of the deflection curve. The roof movement during the removal of the top slice is noticeably different from other slices. The results also show that the requirements of the elastic modulus, as well as the strength of the backfill, increase as the number of mined slices increases from 1 to 5, but the requirements drop sharply for mining the top slice.