Mechanical properties and permeability evolution in gas-bearing coal–rock combination body under triaxial conditions

With the development of deep mining in recent years, coal and gas compound dynamic disasters become increasingly serious. In this study, uniaxial and triaxial compression tests were conducted on gas-bearing coals, coal–sandstone combined bodies and coal–mudstone combined bodies and the permeabilities in the triaxial tests were measured simultaneously. The mechanical behavior and seepage characteristics of coals and coal–rock combination bodies under triaxial conditions were compared in details. The results show that the peak strength among three samples is: coal–sandstone combined body > coal–mudstone combined body > coal. If other conditions were held constant, the strength and the elastic modulus of all specimens show that tendency increases with the increment of the confining pressure or with the decrease in the gas pressure. The strength characteristics of all three specimens met the Mohr–Coulomb criterion, and the residual strength has an increasing trend with the increase in confining pressure. The permeability evolutions of gas-bearing coals and coal–rock combination bodies which are determined by the crack propagation in the coals and rocks are not exactly the same. This preliminary study is intended to deepen our understandings of the mechanisms of coal–gas compound dynamic disasters and provide theoretical bases for their predictions.