1 General Introduction 1.1 Background 1.2 Problem statement 1.3 Research objectives 1.4 Research framework 2 Fundamental Knowledge of the Hazard 2.1 Fundamentals of coal self-heating and oxidation kinetics 2.2 Numerical solutions to self-heating of coal mass 2.3 Theoretical basis of coal heating 2.4 Experimental methods 2.5 Detection 2.6 Control 3 A critical Investigation of Spontaneous Combustion in Shendong Coal Mines 3.1 Introduction of Shendong coal field 3.2 Spontaneous combustion incidents 3.3 Detailed analysis of characteristic spontaneous combustion problems 3.4 Summary 4 Laboratory Tests of Shendong Coals 4.1 Chapter introduction 4.2 Proximate and ultimate tests 4.3 Ignition temperature test 4.4 Gas evolution test 4.5 Adiabatic heating test 4.6 Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) test 4.7 Summary 5 CFD Modelling of Heating Evolution and Inertisation and Inertisation In a Shendong Goaf 5.1 Chapter introduction 5.2 A brief information of LW22307 Bulianta colliery 5.3 Geometric model and mesh generation 5.4 Theoretical model 5.5 Modelling setting and boundary conditions 5.6 Base model result and validation 5.7 500 m model 5.8 1,000 m model with air leakage from mining induced cracks 5.9 Summary 6 Application of Ventilation Simulation to Spontaneous Combustion Control 6.1 Chapter Introduction 6.2 Project description 6.3 Development and validation of ��Ventsim�� model 6.4 Solutions and discussion 6.5 Field demonstration 6.6 Summary 7 Conclusions and Recommendations 7.1 Conclusions 7.2 Recommendations References Acknowledgements Abstract