ISRM Congress 2015 Proceedings - Intl Symposium on Rock Mechanics - ISBN: 978-1-926872-25-4

DEVELOPMENT OF HYDRAULIC FRACTURING TECHNOLOGY FOR HARD ROOF

WEAKENING IN CHINESE COAL MINES

*H. P. Kang, Y. J. Feng

Coal Mining Branch, China Coal Research Institute
No.5 Qingniangou Road, Heping Street
Beijing, China
(*Corresponding author: kanghp@163.com)
 ISRM Congress 2015 Proceedings - Intl Symposium on Rock Mechanics - ISBN: 978-1-926872-25-4

DEVELOPMENT OF HYDRAULIC FRACTURING TECHNOLOGY FOR HARD ROOF

WEAKENING IN CHINESE COAL MINES

ABSTRACT

The hard roof in underground coal mines is generally considered as a main cause that induces
disasters in working faces and entries, such as rock burst and windblast. Hydraulic fracturing technology is
an effective approach to weaken hard roof to reduce ground pressure and control rock burst. The state and
achievements associated with hydraulic fracturing technology applied in Chinese coal mines are
summarized in this paper. Theories related to hydraulic fracturing are of the essence in fracture design to
determine the fracture initiation and propagation pressure and predict the geometry and the characteristics
of hydraulically induced fractures. Initially, theory of elasticity was employed to determine the breakdown
pressure for a vertical borehole where the rock medium is assumed to be elastic. However, porosity and
pore fluid have an influence on the borehole breakdown pressure, and then the poroelasticity theory was
applied. Arbitrary deviated boreholes in practice are rather common and the maximum tensile stress
criterion was employed to determine borehole breakdown pressure. The effect of natural crack in the rock
medium on the initiation pressure has been taken into consideration through fracture mechanics.
Meanwhile, considerable achievements have been made on hydraulic fracturing tools and equipment, and a
set of mature hydraulic fracturing technologies for hard roof control are available. Some comprehensive
investigations on the hydraulic fracturing for hard roof weakening are presented, and successful field
applications in the Jincheng and Luan coal mining districts are introduced. Finally, the unsolved problems
related to hydraulic fracturing are also put forward.

KEYWORDS

Coal mines, hard roof weakening, hydraulic fracturing, fracture initiation, field applications

INTRODUCTION

The roof composed of hard, thick and intact strata is usually considered as the hard roof, which is
quite common in Chinese coal mines. Hard roof generally cannot cave in time with advance of working
face, which will lead to extensive overhanging areas in the gob, and strong loading on supports in working
faces and entries. Furthermore, hard and thick rock is frequently conducive to accumulation of vast elastic
energy resulting in dynamic disaster, such as coal and rock burst in deep coal mines (Shi, Ning, & Wei,
2003). Thus, forced caving technologies for hard roof are always needed. Conventionally, blasting in hard
roof is commonly employed. However, blasting implemented in hard roof in coal mines can result in
numerous problems, such as a lot of boreholes drilled and consumption of explosive, generation of mass
carbonic oxide polluting mine air, triggering gas and coal dust explosion. Hydraulic fracturing is
recognized as an efficient forced caving technology for hard roof, and the problems caused by blasting can
be avoided.

Hydraulic fracturing (or hydrofracturing) is a stimulation technique in which a high-pressure fluid,

usually water mixed with sand and chemicals is injected into wellbore to create fractures in deep rock
formation. Its conventional use is to enhance reservoir permeability and well efficiency for the release of
petroleum and natural gas (Adachi, Siebrits, Peirce, & Desroches, 2007). Other applications of the fluid-
driven fractures include underground storage of carbon dioxide, toxic or radioactive waste (Levasseur,
Charlier, Frieg, & Collin, 2010), in-situ stress measurements (Haimson & Cornet, 2003), and geothermal
energy extraction stimulation (Zimmermann & Reinicke, 2010). Moreover, hydraulic fracturing technology
for hard rock weakening, useful for hard roof rock burst control and acceleration of massive hard roof
caving in longwall gob in Chinese coal mines, were studied by many contributors during the last three
 ISRM Congress 2015 Proceedings - Intl Symposium on Rock Mechanics - ISBN: 978-1-926872-25-4

decades from an analytical perspective as well as an experimental point of view (Du, Mao, Miao, & Wang,
2008; Fan, Dou, He, et al., 2012; Feng & Kang, 2012; Shi, Ning, & Wei, 2003).Theories employed for
fracturing analysis were mostly based on elasticity or fracture mechanics where the rock medium was still
assumed to be homogeneous, linear elastic and isotropic (Hossain, Rahman, & Rahman, 2000; Yew, 1997).
However, the rock deposited in coal mines behaves conversely as a results of natural cracks and flaws.
Progress has been made by taking the natural cracks into consideration in terms of fracture mechanics
(Feng & Kang, 2013).

The hard roof weakening by means of hydraulic fracturing in Chinese coal mines was a
challenging problem before 2005, because of the unique characteristics of coal measures and limitation of
hydraulic fracturing tools and equipment, such as drill bits for transverse notching, borehole sealing
packers and lack of specialized fracturing pumps. Recently, supported by the National High Technology
Research and Development Program of China (863 Program), Coal Mining Branch, China Coal Research
Institute had improved the hydraulic fracturing equipment and technique based on field experiments, and a
set of mature hydraulic fracturing technologies for hard roof control had been developed (Feng & Kang,
2012), which had been successfully applied on hard roof weakening and caving in Chinese coal mines.
However, there are still a lot of issues associated with hydraulic fracturing mechanism and techniques
required to be deeply studied. The main object of this paper is to present the new development of the
hydraulic fracturing technology for hard roof weakening and caving in Chinese coal mines, and put
forward the problems related which should be solved in the future.

HYDRAULIC FRACTURING THEORY

Fracture initiation and propagation in the hard rock formation in coal mines will significantly
weaken the rock strength and integrity, and release elastic energy in the rock medium, which
fundamentally promotes the roof caving and decreases the initial and periodic weighting. As a consequence,
a safe and efficient production condition is provided for miners and equipment. The analysis on fracture
initiation pressure and orientation is usually the focus of hydraulic fracturing theory. Hubbert and Willis
(1957) introduced the first fracture criterion, involving in-situ stress state and rock strength, to predict
longitudinal fracture initiation in vertical and horizontal boreholes. The pressure required to initiate a
fracture for a vertical wellbore can be determined by:

pb=3h-H+t (1)

Where pb, h, H and t are fracture initiation pressure, minimum horizontal stress, maximum
horizontal stress and rock tensile strength, respectively.

Based on tensile strength criterion, the fracture initiates first at the borehole wall when a principal
tensile stress exceeds the rock tensile strength. Hossain and Rahman (2000) made a comprehensive
investigation on fracture initiation of the horizontal wellbore. For instance, as the wellbore axis is along the
direction of h, fracture initiation pressure pb is independent of h and can be estimated by:

pb=3H-v+t (2)

Where v>H>h and v is vertical principal stress, and

pb=3v-H+t (3)

for H>h>v or H>v>h.

Some of these models mentioned above believe that effect of porosity and pore fluid can be
ignored. However, the experimental research carried out by Haimson and Fairhurst (1969) demonstrated
that the porosity and pore fluid have an influence on the borehole initiation pressure. Schmidt and Zoback
 ISRM Congress 2015 Proceedings - Intl Symposium on Rock Mechanics - ISBN: 978-1-926872-25-4

(1989) improved the Hubbert and Willis model by taking rock porosity and Poissons ratio into
consideration which has a close prediction of experimental data.

Nevertheless, these fracture initiation models are mainly suitable to vertical or horizontal borehole
breakdown pressure analysis. Arbitrarily inclined boreholes for hard roof weakening in coal mines are
always encountered as shown in Figure 1. The angle Az and Inc are the azimuth and inclination angles of
the borehole axis. The local rectangular coordinate (x, y, z) and the cylindrical coordinate (r, , z) are used
for the expression of the remote in-situ stresses and the stresses around the borehole, respectively. The
angle is measured counter clockwise from the x-axis and the z-axis is aligned upward along the borehole
axis. rw is the borehole radius.

3
Az

3
z1
y1
Inc
Az
1 Inc 2
1 2
x1
z y ( y1 )
rw

The highest point

Figure 1 Inclined borehole with coordinate system

Comprehensive investigations into the fracture initiation pressure and orientation with respect to
inclined boreholes were carried out in terms of maximum tensile stress criterion and useful results were
obtained, such as the variation of initiation pressure pb with different azimuth Az and inclination Inc,
where t =0 was assumed (Huang, Griffiths, & Wong, 2012). By taking the effect of t into consideration
where a relative small value t/v=0.05 is assumed and Poissons ratio =0.2, the difference is observed in
Figure 2, which implies that even a small value of t has certain effect on the magnitude of initiation
pressure (Feng & Kang, 2013b).

3 3
=0
AZ
/ =1.5 =0
2.5 H v
2.5 AZ
/ =1.0 / =1.5
H h H v

2 / =1.25
H h 2 / =1.0
H h
/ =1.25
pb/v

/ =1.5
pb/v

H h
H h
1.5 / =1.75 1.5 / =1.5
H h
H h / =1.75
H h
/ =2.0
1 H h 1 H/h=2.0
/ =2.25 / =2.25
H h H h

0.5 / =2.5
H h
0.5 / =2.5
H h

0
0 0 15 30 45 60 75 90
0 15 30 45 60 75 90
Inc() Inc()
(a) t/v=0.05 (b) t =0

Figure 2 Effect of rock tensile strength on fracture initiation pressure

 ISRM Congress 2015 Proceedings - Intl Symposium on Rock Mechanics - ISBN: 978-1-926872-25-4

Therefore, the rock tensile strength needs to be considered in fracturing design and treatment
operation. The results were applied for a hard rock fracturing analysis in the Wangtaipu coal mine located
in the Jincheng of China. The mechanical properties of the hard rock and in-situ stresses are listed on Table
1, where H is buried depth, is the orientation of the maximum principal horizontal stress, and KIC is
fracture toughness. The layout of roadways and fracturing boreholes is shown in Figure 3. For borehole 1#,
Az=10Inc=100; for borehole 2#, Az=50Inc=80.The results of fracturing orientation and initiation
pressure are 4.15 and 12.66MPa, respectively for borehole 1#, and -2.79 and 14.40MPa for borehole 2#,
close to the observed field treatment values. Hydraulically induced fractures around the borehole wall are
shown in Figure 4.

Table 1 Mechanical properties of hard rock and in-situ stresses

H v H h t KIC
Lithology
(m) (MPa) (MPa) (MPa) () (MPa) (MPam1/2)
140 limestone 3.5 7.72 4.65 N44.6W 0.26 9.7 2.21

N
h

H
haulage gateway

70

2#
180m

working
borehole
face
1#
70

return airway

H
h
Figure 3 Layout of roadways and fracturing boreholes in the Wangtaipu coal mine

v v
Az
Az
3
3

H
1 10 2
h H
50
10 1 2
x h z
z x 10 2.79

4.15 84.54
91.16 y

(a) Induced fractures in borehole 1# (b) Induced fractures in borehole 2#

Figure 4 Hydraulically induced fractures (by Feng & Kang, 2013b)

 ISRM Congress 2015 Proceedings - Intl Symposium on Rock Mechanics - ISBN: 978-1-926872-25-4

Furthermore, rock formation in coal mines, compared with petroleum or gas engineering,
generally contains lots of natural cracks which play an important role in hydraulic fracture initiation and
propagation. Significant advances have been made to understand the role of natural cracks on hydraulic
fracturing (Yan & Ning, 2000). Feng and Kang (2013a) proposed the initiation study of I-II mixed mode
crack subjected to hydraulic pressure in brittle rock under the framework of linear elastic fracture
mechanics. Mechanical model is shown in Figure 5. In terms of maximum tensile strain theory, the fracture
initiation angle was determined by

KIsin(/2) [2 3(1 + )cos2(/2)] + KIIcos(/2) [9(1 + )sin2(/2) 3 ]=0 (4)

where KI, KII are stress intensity factor of mode I and mode II crack, respectively.

1 1

y' x y' x x
y y y

3 O
P x' 3 = 3 O x' 3 + O
P

1 1
Figure 5 Mechanical model

The relationship between fracture initiation angle and stress intensity and Poissons ratio is shown
visually in Figure 6. The absolute initiation angle does not exceed 7232. Poissons ratio has a slight
influence on the magnitude of initiation angle rather than the variation tendency. In addition, the fracture
initiation and propagation nearly tend to be the behavior of mode I crack as the required pressure to initiate
the fracture far exceeds the magnitude of in-situ stresses. The phenomenon was also predicted through
numerical method. Meanwhile, based on the maximum tensile strain theory, fracture envelope involving
Poissons ratio effect is presented as equation 5 and shown in Figure 7.

KI cos(0/2) (1 3 + cos0 + cos0) KII [3cos(0/2) sin0 + 3sin(0/2) cos0 sin(0/2)]

=2(1 ) KIC (5)

Where KIC is fracture toughness.

75 1.0
0
=0 =0
60 =0.1 0.8 =0.1
45 =0.15
0.6
=0.15
=0.2 =0.2
30 =0.25 0.4 =0.25
15 =0.3
0.2
=0.3
K/Kc

0.0
0
-15 -10 -5 5 10 15 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2
-15 K /K -0.2
-30 K/Kc
-0.4
-45 -0.6
-60 -0.8
-75 -1.0

Figure 6 Fracture initiation angle with ratio of K/K Figure 7 Fracture envelope
 ISRM Congress 2015 Proceedings - Intl Symposium on Rock Mechanics - ISBN: 978-1-926872-25-4

Using the fracture criterion for the rock formation analysis in the Wangtaipu coal mine, assuming
the half length of the crack was 0.12m, the predicted fracture initiation angle was 22.6 and required
initiation pressure was about 10.87MPa, which were less than the results predicted by elastic theory. It
should be noted that the natural crack has a certain effect on the fracture initiation stage. However, it is still
not clear during the fracture propagation process.

In spite of considerable advances have been made in the hard rock fracturing in coal mines, most
achievements are about the fracture initiation stage, and the mechanism about the fracture growth needs to
be deeply investigated.

HYDRAULIC FRACTURE TECHNIQUE AND FIELD APPLICATION

Hydraulic fracturing technique used for hard rock weakening in coal mines, usually consists of
introducing a transverse notch in borehole wall, sealing the selected section and injecting fluid into there at
a rate sufficient to raise the pressure to a critical level causing breakdown. The technology was initially
proposed by Polish Coal Research Institute and was introduced and tested in Chinese coal mines for hard
roof control by Coal Mining Branch, China Coal Research Institute. Hydraulic fracturing technique was
seldom employed in Chinese coal mines before 2005 due to the limitation of the fracturing equipment.
During the last decade, the development of fracturing equipment made it possible for hard roof control as
well as its field applications. The weighting span, released kinetic energy, periodic weighting and
windblast of main roof decrease considerably during coal mining progression after hydraulic fracturing
conducted in the roof. Inducing one or more horizontal fractures along the bedding planes in the rock
medium can effectively control the caving of hard roof in longwall panels (Feng & Kang, 2012; Matsui,
Shimada, & Anwar, 1999). Applying it to coal and gas outburst prevention was also attempted (Fan, Dou,
He, et al., 2012). Besides, the fracture initiation condition around the transverse notch tip was studied
based on fracture theory and the effect of in-situ stress on fracture propagation angle was also investigated
(Kang & Feng, 2013; Yan & Ning, 2000).
More recently, a comprehensive investigation on hydraulic fracturing for hard roof rock
weakening in the Wangtaipu coal mine was carried out (Feng, 2013). Hydraulic fracturing process in hard
roof in coal mine is visually shown in Figure 8. During the initial stage, shown in Figure 8 (a), a transverse
notch is introduced in borehole and the borehole is usually drilled through the hard roof layer ensuring the
weakening effect. Meanwhile, the role of transverse notch on hydraulic fracturing was studied through
theoretical and numerical method (Kang & Feng, 2013). The results pointed out that: (1) the fracture
initiation orientation in borehole wall is nearly longitudinal along the borehole axis and its growth is
frequently incapable of roof caving, (2) tensile stress concentration occurs at the notching tip and the
borehole breaks preferentially at the tip and propagates further along the transverse direction, which is vital
to success of borehole sealing and fracturing propagation in a large scope. The drill bit for transverse
notching and the notches produced in hard roof rock in Wangtaipu coal mine are shown in Figure 9.

drill bits
hard roof drill rod
transverse notch
borehole
coal seam

(a) Transverse notch introduction

isolated interval
hard roof water injection pipe

rubber hose packer

coal seam

(b) Borehole sealing

 ISRM Congress 2015 Proceedings - Intl Symposium on Rock Mechanics - ISBN: 978-1-926872-25-4

isolated interval
hard roof water injection pipe

rubber hose packer

hydraulic pressure
gage
coal seam
fracturing
pump

(c) Fracturing operation

Figure 8 Hydraulic fracturing process in hard roof

(a) Drill bit for transverse notching

Depth/m
Depth/m

Transverse
Notch

(b) Transverse notch in borehole

Figure 9 Drill bit and transverse notches

Secondly, during the borehole sealing stage, the transverse notch is located in an isolated interval
where inflatable straddle packers are used, shown in Figure 8 (b). The length of the isolated interval and
single packer are approximately 0.5m and 1m, respectively. This borehole sealing method makes the
stepwise fracturing possible in one borehole to create multiple delamination in the roof which is capable of
promoting roof caving in time with working face advancing. Finally, a specific high pressure plunger pump,
which can provide sufficient pressure to breakdown the rock formation and keep the fracture growth, is
used for water injection stage. The two typical pressure-time records are shown in Figure 10.

We can learn that the fracture initiation and propagation process in the hard roof are different
from that proceeded in deep rock formation such as petroleum or gas engineering. A lot of natural fractures
and induced fractures by roadway excavation or coal mining, as well as the variation of in-situ stresses and
rock mechanical properties were considered as the causes of drastic fracturing pressure fluctuation. As a
result of transverse notch, fracture initiation pressure was always less than propagation pressure. At the
initial fracturing stage, fracture growth was along the direction of the notch tip because water leakage was
unobserved and the subsequent fracture growth reached to a large distance. Thus, the inflatable straddle
packers isolated the borehole efficiently and ensured the fracturing operation successfully. Due to the stress
relief in the rock formation around the roadway, pumping pressure near roadway was generally less than
that far away from roadway during the stepwise fracturing process.
 ISRM Congress 2015 Proceedings - Intl Symposium on Rock Mechanics - ISBN: 978-1-926872-25-4

30
12

25
10

20
8

pressure/MPa
Pressure/MPa

6 15

4 10

2 5

0 0
100 150 200 250 0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Time/s Time/s
(a) Record 1 (b) Record 2

Figure 10 Hydraulic fracturing pressure-time records

In order to capture hydraulic fracturing characteristics in the hard roof rock in coal mines, the
hollow inclusion cells were employed in the field test for monitoring coal seam stress changes caused by
hydraulic fracturing as well as working face advancing (Kang & Feng, 2012). The following characteristics
were indicated: (1) the principle stress increment, inclination and azimuth in coal mass nearby the
fracturing borehole changed suddenly during hydraulic fracturing operation, illustrated in Figure 11. The
change extent is potentially related to distance between monitoring borehole and fracturing borehole, water
pressure, fracture propagation and mechanical properties of coal seam. After fracturing, principle stress
increments were nearly recovered to the level lower than that before fracturing. Therefore, the stress state
of the coal seam can be changed by hydraulic fracturing. (2) After fracturing, the vertical stress in coal
seam increased and horizontal stresses decreased with working face advancing while inclination and
azimuth nearly kept constant, the change extent of principle stress increments caused by mining is much
less than that caused by hydraulic fracturing. Roof weighting intensity and interval can be reduced by
hydraulic fracturing. Consequently, the effect of abutment pressure generated by hard roof was weakened
effectively in the Wangtaipu coal mine.

2 90 80 1 90
120 70 1
60 120
1 2 120 60
100 50 2
100
1 2 3
80 40 3
80
3
30 150 30
60 60
0 20
40 40
20 10
20
-1
0 0 0 180 0
20 -10 20
-2 40 40
-20
60 60
-30 210 330
-3 80 -40 80

100 -50 100

-60 240 300
-4 120 -70 120
140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 -90 -80 270

(a) Principal stress increments (b) Principal stress inclination (c) Principal stress azimuth

Figure 11 Stress state change during caused by hydraulic fracturing

Furthermore, the working resistance of hydraulic supports were collected to verify the
effectiveness of hydraulic fracturing in hard rock weakening. The working resistance of the hydraulic
supports before and after fracturing, is shown in Figure 12. It is quite clear that the working resistance
reduced significantly as the hard roof was fractured. Subsequently, its expanded applications have been
made increasingly in many coal mines, and currently it is used to promote top coal caving in top coal
 ISRM Congress 2015 Proceedings - Intl Symposium on Rock Mechanics - ISBN: 978-1-926872-25-4

caving working faces in the Luan coal mine district, as a result, top coal recovery was enhanced and gas
tank was prevented in the open-off cut.

(a) working resistance before fracturing

(b) working resistance after fracturing

Figure 12 Working resistance of hydraulic supports before and after fracturing

Despite successful applications of hydraulic fracturing for hard roof weakening have been
achieved, there still exist many problems related to hydraulic fracturing mechanism and techniques. The
fracture footprint propagated in the rock formation and its geometry should be measured by means of
effective method and instrument. Major difficulties still encountered during some applications, including
the requirement of high injection pressure, inability to extend the fracture expected, poor post stimulation
performance. Therefore, further research on hydraulic fracturing theories and improvements on fracturing
tools and equipment are necessary.

CONCLUSIONS

The brief overview of development and achievements on hydraulic fracturing for hard roof rock
weakening in Chinese coal mines shows clearly that obvious progress has been made in this research
domain. Deep understandings on hydraulic mechanism have been obtained, and new fracturing tools and
equipment have been developed to support an increasingly wide range of engineering applications. A set of
mature hydraulic fracturing techniques are available for hard roof weakening and top coal caving in
Chinese coal mines. However, there still exist many theoretical and technical problems associated with
hydraulic fracturing required to be tackled in the future.

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