Assessment of the meshed screens operability to reduce dust emissions of bulk cargo from the ports open warehouses

Abstract

Currently, the coal terminals of sea and river ports have a significant negative impact on the environment through their activities. The operation of the terminals technological equipment leads to high concentrations of dust in the air and dust emissions of bulk cargo. The main sources of dust emissions and dust removal are open coal storage warehouses. Recently, dust screens have been used to combat dusting in open coal warehouses and port terminals. However, the processes of wind flows interaction with stacks of port open slads and meshed screens have not been studied enough. In this regard, the purpose of this work is to evaluate in laboratory conditions the operability of meshed screens to reduce the dustiness of the air and the dust emission of bulk cargo during its storage in port open warehouses. During laboratory studies, models of open warehouses stacks are carried out at a certain scale, which allows you to use the full-scale bulk cargo and real meshed screens. The main results of these studies are the following conclusions: meshed screens are workable and effective devices for reducing the speed of wind flow inside the perimeter of the screen; the shape of the stack cross-section does not affect the screen performance; the level of the meshed screen performance to reduce the air dustiness and the amount of dust emission from the warehouses stacks with the different shape of the cross-section depends on the direction and speed of the wind flow. The use of soft meshed screens located along the perimeter of the open coal warehouse stack makes it possible to reduce air dustiness and dust emission at a wind speed of 5 m/s by an average of 1.8 times, and at a wind speed of 10 m/s by an average of 2.5 times.