Overburden failure simulation under double coal seams mining in a coal mine in north Shaanxi Province

Under the conditions of multi-seam mining, the overburden failure of coal seams has unique characteristics, which affects the mine production arrangement. Taking a mine in northern Shaanxi Province as an example, based on the geological and mining conditions of the mine, the influence of double-seam mining on overburden rock damage was analyzed by using the method of similar material simulation experiment and numerical simulation. The results show that the height of the caving zone and the height of the fractured zone in the overburden of coal seam obtained by using similar material simulation and numerical simulation with different widths of coal pillars were basically the same. In the double-seam mining, the larger the width of the coal pillar is, the smaller the superposition area of the two coal seams is, and the smaller the degree of damage to overburden is. In the arrangement of working face, it is suggested to increase the mining distance between two coal seams and increase the width of coal pillar as far as possible, so as to slow down the damage scope and the extent of overburden movement.