Modeling of gas emission in coal mine excavation workface: a new insight into the prediction model

Coalbed methane (CBM) is a clean energy source, but its utilization is inefficient due to the complexity and low accuracy of its emission prediction model. In this research, we constructed a mathematical model of gas emission from the excavation workface, and combined the experimental results to propose a new model for accurate and concise prediction. The new model was validated in the field workface and compared with the traditional prediction model. Moreover, the sensitivity of gas emission parameters and the participation ratio of gas emission sources were analyzed. The study results show that the new model has higher calculation accuracy than the old model prediction, with an average error reduction of 4.693%. In the excavation workface, the coal fall gas emission conforms to the negative power function equation, and the coal wall gas emission conforms to the negative exponential function equation. In the early stage of excavation, the proportion of coal fall gas emission is higher than that of coal wall gas emission, and the peak proportion reaches 58.5%. In the later stage, the proportion of coal fall gas emission gradually decreases to below 30%. The order of the sensitivity of gas emission parameters is coal wall gas initial velocity > coal fall gas decay coefficient > coal fall gas initial velocity > coal wall gas decay coefficient. The new model is successfully applied in engineering, which helps to improve the efficiency of coal mine gas disaster control and utilization.