Assessment of the impact of an overlying coal seam edge using seismic profiling of refracted Pwave velocity

• Main Authors: Szreder Zbigniew, Barnaś Maciej
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: EDP Sciences 2017-01-01
• Series: E3S Web of Conferences
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20172401007

This paper presents the results of seismic profiling along the sidewalls of two headings of a longwall in a coal-seam at a depth of about 850 and 870 metres in a coal mine in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, Poland. The seismic profiles were located in a zone of impact of the same overlying edge of the coal-seam located about 40 m above. This study was interesting from that point of view since there were no other geological and mining factors present which could disturb the impact of the coal seam edge. The profiling of refracted P-wave velocity changes was carried out according to the Dubinski method. This method is used for the assessment of relative stress in a coal seam in the side wall of the excavation. The results obtained on both seismic profiles are very similar, which demonstrates the small impact of the overlying edge of the coal seam in both headings of a longwall. It should be emphasised that at greater exploitation depths, the calculated reference velocity is less reliable than the measured reference velocity. Presumably, the method of calculating seismic anomaly requires updating under such conditions, but additional evidence should be collected.