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When the coal-seams are multi-layered, the stress and permeability of the caving zone are disturbed again during the following coal seam mining. Repeated unloading and compaction cause caved coal and rock to break further in the caving zone, which in turn affects the migration of gas in goaf. This paper briefly summarizes prior research on caving zone internal stress, porosity, permeability and other parameters of the process of longwall face advancing. The forecast methods for calculating the stress and permeability of the caved zone during its compaction are listed. On the basis, this paper describes a laboratory experiment of the broken coal and rock in the caving zone of the gob in Huainan coal mine. The laboratory test results imply that the re-crushing, re-arrangement, and compressional deformation of particles in the loading process lead to a drastic drop in the caving zone porosity, which causes the permeability reduction. The permeability sensitivity to stress of broken rock (broken coal) samples was determined by their strength. The greater the proportion of coal samples in the combined coal and rock samples, the higher the permeability stress sensitivity and the smaller the permeability.With the increase of the cyclic times, the stress sensitivity gradually weakened. Based on laboratory experiments, the stress-permeability fitting model of the broken coal and rock in the caving zone during the group coal seam mining is proposed in this paper.

During longwall mining, the permeability evaluation in a caving zone is one of the most challenging risks for mine operators because it controls the behavior of gas flow and it significantly influences gob gas extraction and spontaneous combustion. Based on the stress environment of repeated mining in the Huainan coal mine, this study discusses the results of a laboratory experiment on broken coal and rock in a caving zone of a gob. The stress–permeability relationship of broken coal, rock, and combination of coal and rock samples with various particle sizes under cyclic loading and unloading was experimentally studied. The laboratory test results imply that permeability stress sensitivity and permeability loss of the first loading and unloading were significantly greater than the succeeding cyclic loading and unloading. Re-crushing and re-arrangement were the main two factors that lead to a drastic drop in caving zone porosity causing permeability reduction in the first loading and unloading process. The initial permeability and initial pore compressibility increased logarithmically when particle size increased, while the changing rate of pore compressibility decreased exponentially. The stress sensitivity of the broken coal samples' permeability increased when particle size increased. Based on the laboratory experiments, the stress–permeability fitting model considering particle size of broken coal and rock in a caving zone during repeated mining was proposed in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]