Abstract:
In the context of the “dual-carbon” goals and green-mine development, complex hard-to-mine coal seams featuring large dip angles, steep inclinations, and multiple hazards have complex geological occurrence conditions yet scarce reserves; during extraction, the mechanisms underlying hazard occurrence are extremely complex, severely constraining safe, efficient, and green mining. To address prominent issues in such complex hard-to-mine seams under the coupling of the “gravity−dip-angle effect” and multiple hazards — namely discontinuous stress transfer, multiscale differences in response, instability of equipment groups, and multi-source hazards — and in line with China’s needs for green mining, a variable-dip, multiscale, multi-field coupled digital-twin experimental platform and method are proposed and designed. The platform comprises a modular variable-dip loading frame, synchronous/asynchronous servo-controlled static–dynamic composite loading units, equipment models with precise sensing of multidimensional loads and configuration/state variables, a virtual–physical closed-loop digital-twin architecture, and a “dual-model collaboration” module for stability assessment and adaptive regulation; together with multi-source sensing and coupled characterization of multiple hazard fields, it enables parametric identification and determination of key measurable and controllable variables along the hazard chain. Based on this platform, an experimental study of the support–surrounding rock system in inclined coal seams was carried out. The results show that, with increasing seam dip angle, the average load on the support canopy decreases slightly, from 2.49 kN to 2.21 kN under static loading and from 3.49 kN to 3.37 kN under dynamic loading; meanwhile, load non-uniformity of the hydraulic support is significantly aggravated, with eccentric loading persistently concentrated on the down-dip side, and the ratio of down-dip to up-dip eccentric load ranging from 1.11 to 1.34, which induces fracture propagation and deepening damage in the coal wall ahead of the side-shield, causing the support to pitch forward and undergo torsional instability; accordingly, sidewall-support effectiveness decreases and the evolution of roof damage is accelerated. Furthermore, by integrating numerical methods such as 3DEC+COMSOL with big-data computational methods, the coupled operating conditions of multiple hazards were reproduced under laboratory conditions; dominant factors, including through-going coal–rock fractures and the development of bed separations, temperature evolution and stress concentration in the working face, and configuration/state instability of the coal–rock mass and equipment, were quantified into critical instability criteria expressed as coupled relationships, and a precise multi-hazard identification method and a zoned “reconstructed rock strata” control process were proposed. The digital-twin experimental platform can provide low-cost, repeatable technical support for verifying mining schemes in complex coal seams, optimizing equipment, and early warning and control of multi-hazard risks, thereby ensuring safe, efficient, and green mining of complex hard-to-mine coal seams.