Title: Evaluation of the steady-state coal permeability experiments: a numerical simulation study

Authors: Jie Zang; Kai Wang

Addresses: Beijing Key Laboratory for Precise Mining of Intergrown Energy and Resources, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), D11 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 10083, China; Faculty of Resource and Safety Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), D11 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China; State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Safe Mining, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), D11 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China ' Beijing Key Laboratory for Precise Mining of Intergrown Energy and Resources, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), D11 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 10083, China; Faculty of Resource and Safety Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), D11 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China; State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Safe Mining, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), D11 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China

Abstract: By using the numerical simulator developed in our previous work, this paper conducted four simulation cases on the steady-state coal permeability experiments. One case is not backpressure-regulated and the other three are backpressure-regulated with different constant differential pressures between the upstream and the downstream end. The simulation results indicate that the backpressure-regulated steady-state method is superior to the non-backpressure-regulated in terms of the measurement accuracy. The results also indicate that a small differential pressure may be preferable to a higher value for the backpressure-regulated method in order to obtain more accurate permeability measurements. These conclusions may be meaningful for future coal permeability measurements with the steady-state method.

Keywords: coal permeability experiment; steady-state method; numerical simulation; backpressure regulator; coalbed methane.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMME.2018.091975

International Journal of Mining and Mineral Engineering, 2018 Vol.9 No.2, pp.140 - 156

Received: 21 Feb 2017
Accepted: 08 Feb 2018
Published online: 23 May 2018 *

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