The rock-containing dust poses a serious threat to the safe and efficient operation of coal mine tunneling faces (CMTFs). This study investigates the hazard and pollution characteristics of rock-containing dust in CMTFs by testing wettability, lithology surface functional groups, and particle size distribution of dusts with varying rock content. Furthermore, the spatial and temporal evolution of rock-containing dusts is explored through CFD simulation and the effects of rock-containing dust on the dedusting characteristics of water spray are analyzed. The results show that the crystallinity exhibits an exponential growth trend as the mudstone content increases, and the respirable dusts < 2.5μm and < 7μm increase by 15.04 % and 24.28 %, respectively. The rock-containing dust reaches the end of the simulated tunnel in just 50 seconds. On both the driver’s and pedestrian’s sides, the dust concentration shows an approximate S-shaped increase over time. Under the condition that only traditional water spraying measures are implemented, the concentration of respirable rock-containing dust will be approximately 1.2–1.5 times higher than the concentration of respirable coal dust. The results have provided valuable insights into the hazard and pollution characteristics of rock-containing dust in CMTFs, which are crucial for guiding dust disaster management in coal mines.
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