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Coal and gas outbursts are a complex catastrophic unstable phenomenon that involve the ejection of large volumes of coal, and are often accompanied by gas, such as methane, carbon dioxide or a mixture of the two. Coal and gas outbursts are prevalent in deep and gassy mines where face advance rates are rapid, and where gas drainage is either poor or absent. The occurrence of progressively larger coal and gas outbursts, and the potential for the catastrophic collapse of coal pillars, is of increasing importance as mining is extended deeper in seams rich in methane and other hydrocarbons. A unique coupled gas flow and solid deformation numerical model, viz., RFPA^2D-GasFlow, has been developed and is applied to simulate the evolutionary process of such catastrophic coal failures in underground collieries. The finite element model, which incorporates the physics of gas flow in the coal seam, the physics …