Zav'yalova O. Justification of preventing coal spontaneous combustion in faulted areas opened with development headings

The thesis suggests original theoretical justification and practical solution to an urgent scientific and technological problem, which is spontaneous fires in development headings driven to open faulted areas. This approach involves structural regularities of the faulted seam around the heading, thermodynamic processes in the seam and prevention of coal self-heating with purpose-designed technologies. Research into the problem enables to widen understanding of coal oxidation in faulted coal seams opened with development headings and identify some new factors contributing to the formation of self-heating. Theoretical research and experiments help investigate the mechanism of self-heating in geological faults. It has been added with effusive processes and used as a basis to develop: - methods to predict fire-hazardous zones; - software programs to make a prompt prediction of fire site geometry or the period of formation depending on the parameters of natural or forced ventilation; - new methods to prevent the formation of fire hazardous areas. Key words: faulted area, spontaneous combustion and coal self-heating sites, fire hazardous zone, faulted seam structure, coal fracturing, effusive process, prevention of self-combustion fires, antipyrogenes.