Application of air curtaintechnology for dust control on fully-mechanized face of thin coal seam:An experimental study

摘要

Dust control in coal mines is a worldwide problem which has not been solved effectively.In order to control the dust, especially the respirable dust around the shearer during the coal cutting process, this study proposes and develops a new dust isolation method using the air curtain technology.In this paper,a submerged rectangular air jet, simulating an air curtain, has been investigated in order to infer the capability to reduce the transfer of dusty air between a "clean" zone and a dusty zone around the shearer operator.The ANSYS software is adopted for the simulation studies focusing on the impacts of the parameters of the air curtain on dust isolation.Based on the simulation, the parameters for the air curtain to isolate the dusty air were obtained.With the constant airflow velocity, from the point of view of the impact of air curtain on dust concentration around the shearer operator, the air curtain width of 0.02-0.04m can yield good dust suppression outcome; considering the impact of air curtain length, the air curtain length of 3.5-5m can yield good dust suppression outcome.Based on the optimized working parameters for the air curtain, the respirable dust concentration around the shearer operator can be reduced 92.4％.The numerical simulation demonstrates the good isolation performance of the air curtain technology.