Breakage Patterns of High-Level Thick Weakly Cemented Overburden for Coal Safe and Sustainable Mining

The breakage of massive thick weakly cemented rock layer is likely to cause strong mine earthquakes, which threatens the safe and sustainable production of the mine. In order to reveal the breakage law of high-level giant-thickness weakly cemented overburden rock and prevent the occurrence of mine earthquakes, we took the 2201 and 2202 working faces of Yingpanhao Coal Mine as the research object, established the mechanical calculation model of breakage of the high-level giant-thickness weakly cemented overburden, and used the methods of medium-thickness plate and short-beam function to solve the breakage law of high-level giant-thickness weakly cemented overburden rock. The findings indicate that during initial mining operations of high-level giant-thickness weakly cemented overburden rock, the applied force remains well below its bearing capacity. This condition ensures the stability of the overburden, effectively suppressing energy release events and minimizing surface subsidence. However, as mining progresses and approaches its operational limits, the overburden experiences both tensile and shear failures. This results in substantial increases in surface subsidence and the occurrence of frequent high-energy events. Finally, the model is verified against the surface-measured data and microseismic data of Yingpanhao Coal Mine, which proves the reliability of the model. The research results have important practical significance for mine earthquake prevention and safe and sustainable mining in similar geological conditions.