ABSTRACT
Pre- and post-peak behaviour of rock/coal masses, and energy storage and release rates, are critical elements associated with pressure burst prone environments. Additionally, uniformity of the energy release is also of significance; as rapid changes in the released energy indicate unstable failures occurring in the rock/coal mass. This uniformity can be influenced by inherent non-intersecting geological discontinuities. In this paper, Universal Distinct Element Code (UDEC) trigon method incorporating inherent discontinuities is employed to investigate the changes in the pre- and post-peak behaviour as well as the energy release characteristics of different coal mass samples. The insights obtained from the numerical modelling can be useful to interpret the possible energy release mechanisms and burst proneness levels of various geological and geotechnical conditions.
