Abstract: For the sake of preventing coal and gas (methane) outburst accidents effectively in coal mines, the energy conversion during coal and gas outburst process was studied by the gas content method. Six examples of coal and gas outburst were investigated firstly. Ten groups of simulation tests were conducted in laboratory by using a piece of self-developed testing apparatus to verify the analysis outcome of outburst examples. The results show that the proportion of elastic energy in total outburst energy is 0.01%-2.36% and the proportion of gas expansion energy in total outburst energy is 97.64%-99.99%, that the free gas expansion energy takes up 0.07%-8.82% of total expansion energy and the desorbed gas expansion energy takes up 91.18%-99.93% of total expansion energy, which turns out to be consistent with the simulation testing results, that the gas expansion energy is the majority of outburst energy and the desorbed gas supplies the most of gas expansion energy, and that the occurrence and intensity of outburst are greatly influenced by gas content.

Key words: gas content method, coal and gas outburst, test, gas expansion energy, energy analysis