Coal burst phenomenon in underground coal mining: triggering mechanisms and causative factors

A coal burst is one of the catastrophic phenomena may occurring in underground coal mines. It definitely put at risk both human and equipment. Obviously, coal bursts are triggered by various mechanisms and there are many factors affecting coal burst triggering. Besides, the influence or importance levels of these causing factors are not constant. Therefore, the identification of coal burst triggering mechanisms, their causing factors, and the importance levels of these factors are vital for engineers to take more appropriate mitigating measures to minimize the adverse consequences of coal bursts. Hence, in this study, coal burst causing factors are investigated and categorized. Based on the interaction between these factors, different triggering mechanisms have been considered. So, in this paper, coal burst is classified into two groups including self-initiated and remotely triggered. Moreover, to determine the importance levels of the recognized influencing factors, Fuzzy Delphi Analytical Hierarchy Process (FDAHP) method is applied. Using this method, influencing factors are ranked and the most important ones have been determined.