CFD comparative analysis on the pollution characteristics of coal dust under turbulent airflow from coal cutting in the fully mechanized mining face

[Display omitted] In order to investigate the effects of turbulent airflow from coal cutting (TACC) on the pollution characteristics of coal dust, the pollution behaviors of coal dust under the action of system ventilation airflow (SVA) only (Condition 1) and the addition of TACC disturbance (Condition 2) were respectively simulated and verified through a comparison with the field measurement data. The results show that the effects of TACC on the pollution characteristics of coal dust cannot be ignored on the operation site. TACC could not only enhance the turbulent intensity in the flow field, but also induce the positive deviation of airflow. The airflow with a velocity of about 1.0∼1.75 m/s in the footway space moved from the region X=0.3∼36.8 m, Y=4.1∼4.5 m under Condition 1 to the region X=-5.1∼26.5 m, Y=3.8∼4.5 m under Condition 2. After the addition of TACC disturbance, the absolute value of positively-deviated airflow velocity component in the operational range of rear drum driver rose from 0∼0.8 m/s to 0.2∼1.8 m/s. Meanwhile, the flow field under Condition 2 could effectively cause lateral dispersion of coal dust to the footway space, which led to an increase in the lateral dispersion scale of coal dust. Under Condition 2, the region polluted by cutting-induced coal dust moved forward by 11.3 m along the negative direction of X-axis, and the peak coal dust concentration along the footway space was approximately doubled.