Increased production from modern longwall panels has been putting much pressure on the rapid development of gateroads with longer ventilation circuit associated with challenging dust issues from the headings.As development rates for longwall panels look to exceed 220m per continuous miner each week, pressure will be placed on current development practice which requires that the best systems of auxiliary ventilation must be implemented to ensure the health and safety of workers at these advanced development rates.Recently, computational fluid dynamics models have been used as an effective problem solving tool for underground airborne dust issues.In this study, CFD models based on two mine sites are developed to simulate respirable dust flows around a continuous miner in a longwall development heading.Parametric studies are then conducted on two different continuous miner geometries,highlighting common areas of high concentration airborne dust.The models generated in this study have been validated to be representative of the respirable dust flows around continuous miners.These models can be used as a tool for understanding dust flows around continuous miners to help minimise personal exposure.
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