Temporal and Spatial Evolution of Mining Stress Field Under Weakly Cemented Rock Strata for Deep Coal Mine in Western China: A Case Study

The coal seams in the western mining area of China are mainly characterized by weak cementation and soft rock. Under the influence of deep mining, it is more difficult to control deep‐buried weakly consolidated formations in western China. According to the classification of rock characteristics under different geological conditions, FLAC3D software is utilized for simulating the deep mining process in weakly cemented conditions, thereby obtaining the temporal and spatial variation of the mining stress field. The conclusion shows that (1) there is a positive correlation between the buried depth and the mining stress of the mining roadway in the western mining area. (2) When the working face is advanced by 100 m, the mining stress of extremely soft lithology, soft lithology, medium‐hard lithology, and hard lithology increases by 56.25%, 46.67%, 60%, and 61.4%, respectively. (3) Through numerical analysis of 130,608 working faces, it is concluded that under different coal pillar widths, the carrying capacity of the coal pillar gradually increases during the mining process. (4) Compared to 100 m mining, the mining stress increases by 44.83%, 43.08%, 65.39%, and 46.94%. Compared to 1 m mining height, mining stress on the roof, wall, and pillar side of 3, 5, and 7 m mining height increases by 29.46%, 40.44%, and 28.7%, respectively.