Study on the fine particles deposition law in the bronchus of miners affected by dust pollution in the anchor excavation working environment

Abstract

To study the dust exposure law of the operator in the anchor digging working face, the CFD-DEM method was used to numerically simulate the dust deposition pattern in the bronchus of the anchor digging driver. The results show that the highest dust concentration in the vortex region of the anchor digging working face can reach 2364.76 mg/m3, seriously endangering the health of anchor digging driver. The average dust concentration in the respiratory hemisphere of the driver is 510.57 mg/m3, and the range of inhaled dust diameter is 0–60 μm in the breathing state of moderate labour. Over time, the deposition mass in the bronchial showed a pattern of rapid and then slow increase, which was consistent with the trend of the Boltzmann model. Increasing dust particle diameter was positively correlated with bronchial deposition rate and negatively correlated with alveolar deposition rate. Among them, 0–10 μm particles were deposited throughout the bronchus and a large number of particles were deep into the alveoli, with the alveolar deposition rate as high as 56.3 %, while the alveolar deposition rate for particles of 10–20 μm decreased to 20.4 %, and for particles larger than 30 μm, the effect on the alveoli was smaller.