Advanced Processes in Mining Safety and Disaster Prevention: From Gas Extraction to Fire/Dust Control

Dear Colleagues,

Numerical modeling and analysis is a core driver for technological advancement in mining engineering, underpinning mining design, disaster prevention, and efficient resource development—with direct links to engineering safety, production efficiency, and environmental sustainability. Enabled by these tools, researchers and engineers can now better address complex geological and engineering challenges, precisely analyzing mining impacts on the stability and interactions between engineering systems and the natural environment.

Technological progress spans scales: from deep mine design and open-pit slope stability to underground cavern response simulation and mining-induced environmental issues like subsidence or groundwater changes. Diverse approaches include constitutive modeling for varied geological bodies (fractured formations, multiphase media); discrete/finite/boundary element methods for simulating excavation, support, and blasting; AI-driven parameter optimization; and IoT-integrated real-time model calibration. In complex scenarios, it offers a cost-effective, often sole feasible means to evaluate new technologies under extreme conditions (e.g., deep high-stress environments).

This Special Issue, “Advanced Processes in Mining Safety and Disaster Prevention: From Gas Extraction to Fire/Dust Control” will showcase cutting-edge research—either leveraging numerical tools for system analysis or developing novel models/methods tailored to field-specific challenges.

Topics include but are not limited to:

• Prevention and control of dynamic disasters in mines;
• Development of numerical models for gas migration and seepage in coal seam pore-fracture structures, including characterization of micro-macro pore-fracture properties and their impact on gas/liquid transport mechanisms;
• Numerical simulation of deep coalbed methane extraction processes, including optimization of extraction parameters and prediction of production efficiency;
• Numerical analysis of coal mine gas disaster prevention and control technologies, such as gas drainage, gas outburst prediction, and gas explosion simulation;
• Modeling and simulation of permeability enhancement technologies for low-permeability coal seams, including hydraulic fracturing (process, fracturing fluid, proppant, temporary plugging agent), with focus on fracture propagation and permeability evolution;
• Optimization analysis of mine ventilation systems using numerical models, including airflow distribution, pollutant dispersion, and energy consumption optimization;
• Numerical investigation of multi-field coupling (mechanical, thermal, hydraulic, chemical, gas) characteristics in coal and rock masses, especially under deep mining conditions;
• Development of numerical models for coal mine dust pollution control, including dust generation, transport, and capture efficiency of dust control measures;
• Numerical simulation of water injection in deep low-permeability coal seams for disaster prevention, including moisture migration, coal mass modification, and impact on gas control;
• Evaluation of reinforcement materials and equipment effectiveness for disaster prevention;
• Development of numerical models and analysis methods for mine disaster monitoring, early warning, and emergency rescue, including integration of monitoring data into predictive models;
• Simulation platforms, algorithms, software tools, and verification methods specifically tailored for numerical modeling in coal mining engineering;
• Application of numerical models in technical and economic analysis, safety (risk) assessment, environmental impact analysis, and whole-life cycle evaluation of mining engineering systems, with emphasis on resource utilization efficiency and supply chain optimization.

Thank you for your attention. We welcome your contributions to advance numerical modeling in mining engineering, and coal mining applications.

Dr. Hao Xu
Dr. Qing Ma
Dr. Yipeng Song
Dr. Qiang Xu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Processes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• rock burst
• coal
• gas
• coalbed methane
• gas transport
• crack propagation
• discrete element method
• fluid-solid coupling
• dynamic disasters in mines