Strength and failure characteristics of the rock-coal combined body with single joint in coal

Geological dynamic hazards during deep coal mining are caused by the failure of a composite system consisting of the rock and coal layers, whereas the joint in coal affects the stability of the composite system. In this paper, the compression test simulations for the rock-coal combined body with single joint in coal were conducted using $PFC^{2D}$ software and especially the effects of joint length and joint angle on strength and failure characteristics in a rock-coal combined body were analyzed. The joint length and joint angle exhibit a deterioration effect on the strength and affect the failure modes. The deterioration effect of joint length of L on the strength can be neglected with a tiny variation at ${\alpha}$ of $0^{\circ}$ or $90^{\circ}$ between the loading direction and joint direction. While, the deterioration effect of L on strength are relatively large at ${\alpha}$ between $30^{\circ}$ and $60^{\circ}$. And the peak stress and peak strain decrease with the increase of L. Additionally, the deterioration effect of ${\alpha}$ on the strength becomes larger with the increase of L. With the increase of ${\alpha}$, the peak stress and peak strain first decrease and then increase, presenting "V-shaped" curves. And the peak stress and peak strain at ${\alpha}$ of $45^{\circ}$ are the smallest. Moreover, the failure mainly occurs within the coal and no apparent failure is observed for rock. At ${\alpha}$ between $30^{\circ}$ and $60^{\circ}$, the secondary shear cracks generated in or close to the joint tips, cause the structural instability failure of the combined body. Therefore, their failure models present as a shear failure along partial joint plane direction and partially cutting across the coal body or a shear failure along the joint plane direction. However, at ${\alpha}$ of $60^{\circ}$ and L of 10 mm, the "V-shaped" shear cracks cutting across the coal body cause its final failure. While crack nucleations at ${\alpha}$ of $0^{\circ}$ or $90^{\circ}$ are randomly distributed in the coal, the failure mode shows a V-shaped shear failure cutting across the coal body.