Evaluation on Self-Ignition Risk of Coal Seam Based on Combination Weighting and Extension Theory

Coal seam self-ignition is an important underground mine accident, which seriously restricts the healthy development of coal mine industries. To effectively prevent the occurrence of such accident, evaluating the self-ignition risk of coal seam is essential. Based on the characteristics of coal seam self-ignition, this paper proposes a comprehensive evaluation method. An evaluation index system is established from the aspects of internal feature of coal seam, geology feature and mining conditions. Then, the Analytic Hierarchy Process and the Entropy Weight Method are applied to determine the combination weights of 13 evaluation indexes. The extension theory is employed to construct coal seam self-ignition matter element model, and the risk ranks of coal seams are then determined. A case study is conducted to verify the effectiveness of this method. 11 of 12 evaluation results are in accordance with actual situations. The results show that the proposed method is valid for evaluating self-ignition risk of coal seam and has high accuracy. The comprehensive evaluation method is helpful to manage self-ignition hazards of coal mine enterprises and to provide reference for safety precaution.