Study on the propagation characteristics of methane-air explosion under the promotion of crushed gangue

Abstract

Methane-air explosion is one of the major disasters in industrial process. The explosion strength could be influenced by the crushed coal gangue, which is widely distributed in coal mine gob and roadway. To understand the influence of the coal gangue on gas explosion, an experimental system with a 0.2 × 0.2 × 3.0 m3 pipeline was designed and explosion experiments of coal gangue with 5 blockage length-diameter ratios (ratio of axial blockage length to pipeline equivalent diameter) were carried out. The results show that coal gangue can cause significant disturbances to the flame front, resulting in a violent acceleration of the explosion flame. The overpressure ratio presents a negative exponential function distribution with the blockage length-diameter ratio. The influence range increases with the blockage length-diameter ratio under the condition of rich fuel, and reaches the maximum when equivalent ratio is 1.237. The explosion intensity is more sensitive to the blockage length-diameter ratio for the equivalent ratio equals 1.0 and 1.237. The formation of high-intensity explosion should be avoided by controlling the accumulation state of the overlying rock in coal mining.