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Numerical Studies of Ventilation Effect on Methane Layering Behaviour in Underground Coal Mines


Affiliations
1 Department of Mining Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad 826 004, India
 

Layering of methane in underground coal mines owing to poor ventilation leads to methane explosion hazard. We study the methane layering phenomenon and the effect of ventilation on dispersion of methane in underground coal mines at air velocities varying from 0.5 to 4.0 m/s. Three-dimensional simulations using CFD code ANSYS Fluent 12.0 were performed assuming the flow to be unsteady, turbulent and incompressible. The study demonstrated that ventilation significantly affects the behaviour of methane layering and dispersion of methane in underground coal mines. The layering length decreased with increase in air velocity. At air velocity of 4.0 m/s, the methane layering length considerably reduced to a safer level of about 1 m. Moreover, the simulation results showed a good agreement with the experimental results.

Keywords

Methane Layering, Numerical Simulation, Underground Coal Mine, Ventilation Effect.
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  • Numerical Studies of Ventilation Effect on Methane Layering Behaviour in Underground Coal Mines

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Authors

Pradeep Kumar
Department of Mining Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad 826 004, India
Devi Prasad Mishra
Department of Mining Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad 826 004, India
Durga Charan Panigrahi
Department of Mining Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad 826 004, India
Patitapaban Sahu
Department of Mining Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad 826 004, India

Abstract


Layering of methane in underground coal mines owing to poor ventilation leads to methane explosion hazard. We study the methane layering phenomenon and the effect of ventilation on dispersion of methane in underground coal mines at air velocities varying from 0.5 to 4.0 m/s. Three-dimensional simulations using CFD code ANSYS Fluent 12.0 were performed assuming the flow to be unsteady, turbulent and incompressible. The study demonstrated that ventilation significantly affects the behaviour of methane layering and dispersion of methane in underground coal mines. The layering length decreased with increase in air velocity. At air velocity of 4.0 m/s, the methane layering length considerably reduced to a safer level of about 1 m. Moreover, the simulation results showed a good agreement with the experimental results.

Keywords


Methane Layering, Numerical Simulation, Underground Coal Mine, Ventilation Effect.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv112%2Fi09%2F1873-1881