Design of Auxiliary Ventilation System for Effective Dust Dispersion in Underground Coal Mine Development Heading—A Computational Simulation Approach

Abstract

The fine dust particles produced during production poses serious health hazard to the miners and decreases mine productivity. Hence, effective dispersion of dust to a safer level is of paramount significance. This paper presents monitoring of dust concentration using Grimm Aerosol Spectrometer (Model 1.108) and establishes a best combination of auxiliary ventilation parameters for effective dust dispersion in continuous miner development heading. Three-dimensional numerical simulations using CFD software ANSYS-Fluent 14.0 were conducted using actual mine data to study the effects of various auxiliary ventilation parameters on dust dispersion. The k-ε turbulence model was used for simulations. The important auxiliary ventilation parameters such as air velocity, ventilation duct diameter, height of duct from mine floor and setback distance of duct opening from mine face were varied in the ranges of 3–7 m/s, 0.6–1 m, 2–3 m and 5–8 m, respectively. The forcing auxiliary ventilation system was considered in this study which helped in better understanding of dust dispersion under varied scenarios and identifying parameters affecting dust dispersion in development heading. It also established a best suitable combination of auxiliary ventilation parameters for effective dust dispersion and alleviating the dust problem in a continuous miner development heading.