The role of pore pressure during hydraulic fracturing and implications for groundwater outbursts in mining and tunnelling

Water outbursts from the floor during underground mining, and those from the surrounding rock mass of tunnels, involve the basic principle of hydraulic fracturing. Based on the hydraulic-fracturing mechanism, considered to be dependent on the coupling between seepage and damage, it is deemed that the variation of the pore-fluid pressure coefficient must be taken into account during this coupled process, in order to correctly establish the crack propagation mechanism during hydraulic fracturing. The coupled seepage-damage model is validated using numerical simulations of hydraulic fracturing around one hole and three holes; the model may also enable scientific and reasonable explanation of the dominance of hydraulic gradient on the crack propagation path in permeable rock. Finally, the water outburst from the floor at a coal mining site in Hebei Province, China, is numerically simulated, and the coupled seepage and damage mechanism during the mining-induced rock failure is clarified. The numerical simulation implies that the seepage-damage is the main mechanism for controlling the water outburst. Therefore this mechanism should be considered in the numerical simulation to understand the essence of water outburst induced in mines.