Abstract
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.
Highlights
Goaf gas emissions have increased substantially over the years and are set to increase in the near future due to higher production rates, increased depth of mine and industry’s trend towards wider and longer panels
Analyses of the results indicate that this curtain configuration would be effective in significantly reducing methane gas concentration levels around the TG motor region under high face airflow conditions
Analyses of the results indicate that the control option involving a combination of curtain configurations would be successful in reducing the gas concentration levels near the TG motor area under Mine A conditions
Summary
Goaf gas emissions have increased substantially over the years and are set to increase in the near future due to higher production rates, increased depth of mine and industry’s trend towards wider and longer panels. In the last two decades, CFD techniques were widely used to model gas and dust flows in longwall mines. Aziz et al (1993) used numerical techniques to understand the ventilation mechanisms, gas and dust distributions in coal mines. Balusu et al (2002, 2004) carried out numerical investigations for understanding goaf gas distribution in gassy mines and proposed various inertisation strategies for prevention of spontaneous combustion in those mines. CFD techniques were used for investigating the gas management options near the TG region of the longwall top coal caving face (Tanguturi and Balusu, 2014). Investigations were carried out for determining the gas concentration near the TG motor and later, various gas management strategies using curtains at various locations in the longwall were investigated numerically
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