CFD MODELLING OF THE DUST AND AIR VELOCITY BEHAVIOUR AT AN UNDERGROUND COAL MINE ROADWAY

Abstract

Dust pollution for ventilation systems is a big problem for mine workers in underground coal mines. The respirable dust concentration is important to the physical and spiritual health of miners. It is hazardous up to 2 mg/m3in the air in underground coal galleries. In the present work, the airflow velocity and dust concentration values were measured at Çay 1-Kartiye roadway in Kozlu, Zonguldak. The goal of this research is modelling to the dust concentration and airflow velocity values by the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. An airflow and dust fluid and solid model was done using the Eularian-Granular multiphase method with the k-epsilon two-equation model. The results showed that dust concentration values were too low and fixed. The error percentage of airflow velocity values changed between 5% and 17%. Thus, this roadway is safe for coal dust explorations.