Numerical Simulation of Co-Barrier Efficiency of Air Curtains in Mine Refuge Chambers

Abstract

Toxic and harmful gases may follow evacuees into the mine refuge chamber, endangering their life during the mine disaster. Gases from the outside environment are successfully kept out of the mine refuge chamber by air curtains. The effect of the air curtain installation position, jet velocity, angle, and structural parameters on the CO barrier efficiency is studied using numerical simulation of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in this paper. The results are also used to show the influence of the above factors on the efficiency of the air curtain. The results show that: (1) increasing the air curtain jet speed does not always increase or even decrease the air curtain barrier efficiency. (2) The best CO barrier efficiency of 68.1% was obtained by an air curtain installed on the top side of the refuge door with a velocity of 22 m/s and a jet angle of 10°. (3) A mathematical relationship between air curtain structural parameters and barrier efficiency is developed to provide a reference for the design of air curtain pipeline structures.