Abstract
Methane-based inflammable underground coal mine environment has led to catastrophic losses in the past. Migration of methane from the working seam and desorption region above and below the seam causes explosion hazard. In this study, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based simulations of a longwall panel in a methane-rich inclined coal seam of the Moonidih mine in India established that the ventilation parameters greatly influence the methane flow in the longwall tailgate and porous medium of the goaf. The field survey and CFD analysis revealed that methane accumulation on the “rise side” wall of the tailgate is attributable to the geo-mining parameters. Further, the turbulent energy cascade was observed to impact the distinct dispersion pattern along the tailgate. The numerical code was used to investigate the changes in ventilation parameters made to dilute the methane concentration in the longwall tailgate. Methane concentration in the tailgate outlet decreased from 2.4 to 1.5% as the inlet air velocity increased from 2 to 4 m/s. The oxygen ingress into the goaf increased from 0.5 to 4.5 lps as the velocity was increased, causing the explosive zone in the goaf to expand from 5 to 100 m. Amongst all velocity variations, the lowest level of gas hazard was observed at an inlet air velocity of 2.5 m/s. This study, thus, demonstrated the ventilation-based numerical method to assess the coexistence of gas hazard in the goaf and longwall workings. Moreover, it provided impetus to the necessity of novel strategies to monitor and mitigate the methane hazard in U-type longwall mine ventilation.
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Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the expertise and cooperation extended by the longwall crew and mine management of Mooonidih mine during the field investigations. This study is a part of the doctoral research being carried out by the first author in the Department of Mining Engineering, IIT(ISM) Dhanbad, India.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Sunny Rao, Devi Prasad Mishra, and Aishwarya Mishra. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Sunny Rao, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Rao, S., Mishra, D.P. & Mishra, A. Methane migration and explosive fringe localisation in retreating longwall panel under varied ventilation scenarios: a numerical simulation approach. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 66705–66729 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-26959-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-26959-6