Flame and temperature wave propagation characteristic of methane-air mixture in mine tunnels

摘要

Purpose - Explosions are the main type of accident causing casualties in underground coal mines. Little attention has been devoted to investigating the flame propagations for methane-air explosion in a tunnel with full scale. This paper seeks to address this topic. Design/methodology/approach - Based on the numerical simulation and the analysis, the propagation rule of flame and temperature waves inside and outside the space occupied by methane/air mixture at the various concentrations in a tunnel were obtained in this work. Findings - The original interface of methane-air mixture and air moves forward in the explosion and the original mixture area extends. For the methane-air mixture with rich fuel concentration, the flame speed increases with distance within a range beyond the original position of the interface between the mixture and air. The flame speed reaches maximum value outside the original area of methane-air mixture with rich fuel concentration. Originality/value - Based on the numerical simulation and the analysis, the propagation rule of flame and temperature wave inside and outside the space occupied by methane/air mixture at the various concentrations in a tunnel were obtained.