Application of microseismic monitoring system for coal mines to the prevention and control of water disasters on working face roofs

Objective Increasing coal mining depth in coal mines has caused increasingly prominent risks of water disasters on working face roofs, which restrict the green, safe, and efficient coal mining in China’s coal mines. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new technologies for the monitoring and early warning of these water disasters. Methods This study explored the application of the joint well-ground microseismic monitoring system to the prevention and control of water disasters on working face roofs, achieving transparent, intelligent monitoring and early warning of water disaster risks. In this system, microseismic sensor arrays are arranged on the surface above a working face and along the underground roadways on both sides of the working face to increase the vertical data acquisition space and seismic source location accuracy. Furthermore, the time- and frequency-domain characteristics of the monitoring data are extracted to construct a sample data set, and the intelligent identification of microseismic events is achieved using the support vector machine (SVM) algorithm. Results and Conclusions Taking a working face in a certain coal mine within the Binchang mining area in Shaanxi as an example, the joint well-ground microseismic monitoring system allowed for the successive identification of three stress concentration zones on the coal seam roof, coinciding with the resistivity monitoring results. The system also identified a hydraulically conductive fracture zone with a height reaching up to 160 m, which spread to aquifers, revealing the whole dynamic development process of hydraulically conductive channels on the roof during mining. The joint well-ground microseismic monitoring system can accurately identify microseismic events, providing a new technology for the monitoring and early warning of water disaster risks on a working face roof. This study helps promote the intelligent applications of microseismic monitoring technology in fields such as the prevention and control of water disasters on coal mine roofs, thus promoting safe, green, and efficient coal mining.