Theoretical background of rock failure at hydraulic seam fracture and aftereffect analysis

Purpose. Theoretical substantiation of the methodological foundations of possible effects and aftereffects identification of the hydraulic seam fracture (HSF) technology. Methods. The research structure and procedure includes: studying the power engineering aspect of the rock failure, the acoustical wave effects; thermodynamic analysis of rock failure, analysis of surfaces mechanoactivation at rock failure and aftereffect of the primary pore space self-development at the HSF due to the Rebinder's effect. Findings. It was established that among the fundamental consistent patterns that determine the formation and development of the HSF technology aftereffects during formations mining, are the methodological provisions and criteria for failure parameters prediction and grinding effects, namely: the average and local energy density of geoenvironment destruction, efficiency of grinding, the average particle and pore size, the specific surface area, the specific energy consumption per unit of the resulting surface. The connection between the parameters of the acoustic wave and the size of the fractures, which forms the basis of the acoustic emission (AE) method, is experimentally confirmed. Originality. It is established that the database for evaluating the expected fracture effects in the working zone of the HSF is: AE activity, specific acoustic radiation, spectrum of signals, characteristic amplitudes under the condition of physical modeling on the model samples of the geoenvironment behavior. It is shown that the critical state of a substance corresponding to the beginning of failure at the microlevel should be considered from the standpoint of thermodynamics as a phase change (evaporation, sublimation) near the critical point, based on the temperature critical values and the specific energy of the phase change. The presence of surfaces mechanoactivation in the rock failure is experimentally proved. The hypothesis concerning the rock pore space development aftereffect during hydraulic seam fracture due to the Rebinder's effect is presented. Practical implications. It is proposed to size up the degree of geoenvironment destruction in the process of the HSF by the Kd parameter, which is equal to the product of the maximum amplitude of acoustic signals on the total acoustic activity of the destruction zone. It is established that the conditions for rock failure at the HSF are determined by the relationship between the rock pressure P and the volume energy density W of the failure. It is shown that the level of surfaces mechanoactivation can be estimated by adsorption characteristics – the adsorption potential and the pH of the newly discovered surfaces.