Gas control in TG motor region in longwall gassy mines

A number of longwall mines suffer significant gas delays due to high methane gas concentration levels (i.e. above 1.0% statutory limit for methane gas level) near the tailgate (TG) motor area of the longwall face. Therefore, in addition to development of effective goaf gas drainage and management strategies for highly gassy mines, development of face control strategies to minimize methane gas concentration levels near the tailgate motor of the longwall face is highly critical to achieve high production rates in high capacity longwall mines. To address this issue, detailed CFD models of longwall face were developed and extensive modelling simulations were carried out to investigate the effectiveness of various control options on gas concentration distribution near the tailgate motor area. To investigate the effect of mining and ventilation parameters on effectiveness of various control strategies, simulations were carried out with CFD models of Mine A. The details and results of all these studies are presented in this paper.