Investigation of rock cutting dust formation and suppression using water jets during mining

Dust suppression is an urgent issue for coal mines because the problem of dust has not been solved effectively, harms the health of miners and is a potentially serious threat to the mine environment and safety. Therefore, an effective method for dust suppression is highly desired. In this work, the formation and suppression of cutting dust are analyzed, and a method for suppressing the cutting dust during the formation process in the crushing zone is discussed. Internal and external water jets are used for dust suppression based on the cutting dust formation mechanism and are examined in rock cutting experiments using a newly developed test-bed. The use of internal water jets reduces the cutting dust concentration by over 90% on average, with no obvious relationship between the dust concentration and the water pressure. The use of external water jets reduces the cutting dust by over 65% on average, with an increasing reduction in dust concentration with increasing water pressure from 5MPa to 20MPa. [Display omitted] •Cutting dust formation mechanism was revealed using discrete element method.•Developing two types of dust suppression assisted by internal and external water jets•Internal water jets can reduce dust concentration over 90% under water pressure of 5MPa–20MPa.•Dust suppression efficiency with internal water jets is higher than most of existing methods.