Matthieu Vandamme is Professor at the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and Researcher at the Navier Laboratory, France. His research interests include the mechanics and physics of porous materials for civil engineering and energy.Jean-Michel Pereira is Professor of Geomechanics at the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and Researcher at the Navier Laboratory, France. He is particularly interested in the coupled multiphysical behavior of geomaterials and geostructures, with applications in the environmental and energy fields.

• Introduction: Why a Book on the "Geomechanics of Coal Seams"? xiJean-Michel PEREIRA and Matthieu VANDAMMEChapter 1. Coal, Its Genesis, Its Characteristics 1Didier BONIJOLY1.1. Definition 11.2. Deposition conditions 41.3. The major periods of coal deposition 51.4. Coalification process 91.5. Coal classification 111.6. Coal gas 131.7. Coal availability, resources and reserves 181.8. The uses of coal 261.9. Coal gas exploitation 301.10. Coal and climate change 371.11. Acknowledgments 461.12. References 47Chapter 2. Hydrogeology of Fractured Media -- With Special Reference to Coalbeds 51Derek ELSWORTH, Jishan LIU, Shimin LIU, Brandon SCHWARTZ and Shugang WANG2.1. Introduction 512.2. Controls on groundwater flow 522.3. Characterization methods 592.4. Permeability evolution models 672.5. Summary 802.6. References 81Chapter 3. Measurement of Coal Physical Properties: Poromechanical and Adsorption Testing 85D. Nicolas ESPINOZA3.1. Introduction 853.2. Pressure, stress and strains in geological formations 863.3. Total gas-in-place and adsorption measurement 903.4. Adsorption-induced strains 993.5. Adsorption-induced stresses 1063.6. Reservoir scale implications 1093.7. Conclusions 1113.8. References 112Chapter 4. Poromechanical Modeling of Coal Material 117Matthieu VANDAMME, Jean-Michel PEREIRA and David GRÉGOIRE4.1. Relevant scale for material modeling 1194.2. Physics of the phenomena involved 1214.3. Classical poromechanical modeling of a saturated material in the absence of sorption 1324.4. Poromechanical modeling of microporous materials undergoing sorption 1364.5. Examples of possible model enhancements 1454.6. Limitations and perspectives of the models 1574.7. References 160Chapter 5. Molecular Scale Modeling of Coal and Its Behavior 165Laurent BROCHARD, Christelle MIQUEU and David GRÉGOIRE5.1. Introduction 1655.2. Nature of coal at the molecular scale 1695.3. Atomic simulations of adsorption in coals 1735.4. Adsorption modeling using DFT 1825.5. Mechanics-adsorption coupling 1895.6. Conclusion 2035.7. References 205Chapter 6. Reservoir-Scale Modeling 211Patrick DANGLA6.1. Introduction 2116.2. Isothermal constitutive laws of coal in the presence of adsorbates 2126.3. Reservoir scale field equations 2256.4. Numerical solution via the finite element method 2296.5. Application examples 2346.6. Conclusion 2396.7. References 241Chapter 7. Multiscale Modeling 243François BERTRAND and Frédéric COLLIN7.1. Introduction 2437.2. Principles of the FE2 method 2457.3. Hydro-mechanical model 2497.4. Application 2617.5. Conclusion 2717.6. References 272List of Authors 277Index 279