Underground pressure is abnormal during mining of shallow coal seams under gullies. We studied gully slope movements, subject to underground mining, with physical simulation and theoretical analysis. The rules disclose that the slope rock slides horizontally in response to mining in the direction of gullies and rotates reversely with the appearance of a polygon block in mining away from gullies. We focused our attention on the case of mining away from a gully. We built a mechanical model in terms of a polygon block hinged structure and investigated the variation of horizontal thrust and shear force at the hinged point in relation to the rotation angle under different fragmentations. The Sliding-Rotation instability conditions of the polygon block hinged structure are presented based on the analyses of sliding instability and rotation instability. These results can serve as a theoretical guide for roof control during mining away from gullies in a coalfield defined by gullies.
We determi：ned a suitable gate road layout in slice mining in an ultra-thick unstable coal seam, using theoretical anallysis and numerical calculations. Based on plasticity theory in terms of limiting equilibrium, the width of chain pillar in the upper slice was calculated to be 18 m. The stress distribution in the chain pillar after the upper slice was mined out was described with numerical simulation. The extent of the effect of stress on the upper chain pillar on the lower solid coal was obtained on the basis of an elastic solution of a distributed force loaded on a half-plane. Three layout designs for lower gate roads were pro- posed and a stability factor was introduced to analyze the stability of the lower pillar with numerical calculation. Gate road translation was determined as the most suitable layout method, which maximizes the extraction rate on the basis of the pillar stability.
