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Experimental investigation on spontaneous combustion of coal affected by exothermic reaction of polyurethane in underground coal mines

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Abstract

Organic elastomers such as polyurethane are widely used as a filling material in underground coal mines. However, the risk of fire hazard in coal seams is increased due to the flammability of polyurethane. Laboratory tests illustrate that in a thermostatic reactor with initial temperature of 25 °C, the temperature during the production of polyurethane increases up to > 140 °C. Adiabatic oxidation experiments and TG–DTG analysis showed that the heating rate of the mixed samples of polyurethane and coal was higher than that of any single component in the initial oxidation stage. From the initial temperature to 100 °C, increasing the proportion of polyurethane was conducive to the acceleration of temperature rise. From 0.180 to 0.850 mm, the self-heating rate was inversely proportional to the particle size. At the initial stage, the low ventilation rate promoted the spontaneous combustion of mixed samples, but when the temperature is > 70 °C, an opposite trend was seen. Kinetic parameters suggested that the activation energy decreases with the introduction of polyurethane. According to the mathematical model, the variation of the spontaneous combustion period of coal and polyurethane was predicted.

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Abbreviations

\(A\) :

Pre-exponential factor (s−1)

\(E\) :

Activation energy (kJ mol−1)

\(R\) :

Universal gas constant (J mol−1 K−1)

\(C_{{\text{S}}}\) :

Constant in Starink formula

\(G\left( a \right)\) :

Integral mechanism function

\(Q\) :

Energy (J)

\(R\left( T \right)\) :

Heat flow rate (J s−1 g−1)

\(m\left( T \right)\) :

Sample mass (g)

\(\omega \left( T \right)\) :

Sample moisture content (%)

\(c_{{\text{s}}} \left( T \right)\) :

The specific heat capacity of the sample (J g−1 K−1)

\(c_{{\text{w}}}\) :

The specific heat of water (J g−1 K−1)

\(h\) :

The latent heat of evaporation of water (J g−1)

\(m_{0}\) :

The initial mass of the sample (g)

\(\omega_{0}\) :

The percentage of water that evaporates (%)

\(A_{{\text{e}}}\) :

The heat dissipation surface area (m2)

\(T_{{\text{e}}}\) :

Environment temperature (K)

\(A_{{\text{i}}}\) :

The heated surface area (m2)

\(T_{{\text{i}}}\) :

Instrument temperature (K)

\(a\) :

Conversion degree (%)

\(\alpha\) :

Coefficient of heat dispersion (W m−2 K−1)

\(\beta\) :

Heating rate (K min−1)

\(\lambda\) :

Coefficient of heat transfer (W m−2 K−1)

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Acknowledgements

This study is funded by the Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51604185).

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  1. College of Safety and Emergency Management Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, China

    Yibo Tang & Pengwei Guo

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  1. Yibo Tang
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Correspondence to Yibo Tang.

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Tang, Y., Guo, P. Experimental investigation on spontaneous combustion of coal affected by exothermic reaction of polyurethane in underground coal mines. J Therm Anal Calorim 147, 337–346 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-020-10312-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-020-10312-x

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