A novel coating technology for fast sealing of air leakage in underground coal mines

Air leakage in underground coal mines presents a serious hazard for coal production and the safety of miners. Coating technology is commonly used as an efficient means for preventing air leakage. To address existing problems with high dust concentrations in large operations involving complex processes and the high cost of traditional coating technology, a novel coating technology that ensures intrinsic safety by utilizing water pressure and wind pressure was developed. This new coating technology was designed to suction and spray, and the technical parameters of its spray performance was also studied. The experimental tests and evaluation indicated the optimum working range is 0.3–0.7 MPa of wind pressure, 1.2–10.2 L/min of water quantity, and 1.0–3.5 m of spraying distance. Moreover, this novel coating technology was tested in the Dashuitou Coal Mine in Gansu Province of China. Compared with conventional counterparts, the proposed new technology is safe, efficient, and convenient to operate. During spraying, dust concentrations were kept at less than 10 mg/m3, and the average rebound ratio resilient rate of solid materials was below 13%. After spraying, the average leakage every 100 m was 4 m3/min, and the oxygen volume fraction in the adjacent goaf was approximately 4%, demonstrating excellent air leakage prevention.