Insights into the Energy Sources of Bursts in Coal Mines and the Effectiveness of Prevention and Control Measures

Coalburst is a general term, which is commonly used in the coal mining industry for the violent failures of coal in the ribs and face of roadways and panels in underground coalmines. Due to lack of interest in the industry to reveal the causing source of the event, or due to uncertainty about the source, they happily use this term. The term by its own does not reveal the source of the energy, which causes the event. There are three sources of energy that can cause a burst event in underground coalmines: 1) store elastic strain energy, 2) seismic events and 3) gas expansion energy. This paper presents the fundamentals about these sources of energies and discusses our known and unknown facts about the mechanisms. Additionally, it discusses the reliability and effectiveness of stress relief holes and gas exhaust holes as controlling measures to prevent burst events.