Accepted Manuscript

Diffuse Pollution Characteristics of Respirable Dust in Fully-Mechanized Mining

Face under Various Velocities Based on CFD Investigation

Qi Zhang, Gang Zhou, Xinming Qian, Mnengqi Yuan, Yanlong Sun, Dan Wang

PII: S0959-6526(18)30560-2

DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.02.230

Reference: JCLP 12177

To appear in: Journal of Cleaner Production

Received Date: 21 November 2017

Revised Date: 10 February 2018

Accepted Date: 20 February 2018

Please cite this article as: Qi Zhang, Gang Zhou, Xinming Qian, Mnengqi Yuan, Yanlong Sun, Dan
Wang, Diffuse Pollution Characteristics of Respirable Dust in Fully-Mechanized Mining Face under
Various Velocities Based on CFD Investigation, Journal of Cleaner Production (2018), doi: 10.1016
/j.jclepro.2018.02.230

This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to
our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo
copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form.
Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the
content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Article Title:

Diffuse Pollution Characteristics of Respirable Dust in Fully-Mechanized Mining Face under

Various Velocities Based on CFD Investigation

Author List: Qi Zhanga, Gang Zhoub,*, Xinming Qiana, Mnengqi Yuana, Yanlong Suna, Dan Wanga

Author Affiliations:

a. State Key Laboratory of Explosion Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of

Technology, Beijing, 100081, China
b. College of Mining and Safety Engineering, Shandong University of Science and
Technology, Qingdao 266590, China

Corresponding Author: Gang Zhou

E-mail: zhougang@sdust.edu.cn

Telephone number: +86 53286058080

Fax number: +86 53286057013

Zip code: 266590

Total number of Words: 7023; Total number of Tables: 5; Total number of Figures:14.

1
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 ABSTRACT

2 In order to grasp the partition diffusion and pollution of respirable dust under various

3 turbulent velocities in fully-mechanized mining face, Finite Volume Method was adopted to

4 simulate and study the diffusion behavior characteristics of respirable dust of 52305-1 fully-

5 mechanized mining face in Daliuta coal mine at different areas under full section independent

6 negative pressure ventilation conditions based on airflow streamline, airflow vector, and dust

7 trace. Especially the dust particle movements under the impact of turbulent inlet velocity were

8 defined accurately. The results show that a narrow and long high-speed zone is formed

9 between the coal shearer and corresponding hydraulic pillars due to the blocking effect of coal

10 shearer. At the height of breathing zone, the area with maximum air velocity is performed from

11 the variable cross section, the maximum velocity reaches up to 1.44 - 2.52 times over inlet air

12 velocity, also the value decreases as the inlet air velocity increases. Average respirable dust

13 concentration of breathing zone height decreases with the increase of inlet air velocity,

14 however the decreasing degree is weakened gradually. With the increase of turbulent inlet

15 velocity, the settlement range of the dust from advancing support and the transverse diffusion

16 range of the dust from drum cutting coal is gradually reduced, also the high concentration

17 respirable dust area with more than 1440 mg/m3 gradually disappear. When the inlet air

18 velocity is over 2.5 m/s, the effect of dust removal by ventilation is weakened gradually.

19 Keywords: Fully-mechanized mining face, Various velocities, Respirable dust, Partition

20 diffusion and pollution, Numerical simulation

1
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 1. Introduction

2 With the gradual improvement of mechanization and automation of the coal mine production in

3 China, the dust-caused potential safety hazard and occupational health problems have become even

4 more serious(Xu et al., 2017). At the production site of coal mine, high-concentration respirable

5 dust reduces the productivity of miners, affects output and benefit of the coal mine, and leads to

6 death of the miners who suffer from the pneumoconiosis that cannot be cured for a long period, or

7 leads to coal dust explosion and major accidents(Fan et al., 2018). Among various coal mine

8 working faces, the fully-mechanized mining face (FMMF) generates the most high-concentration

9 coal dust, so it posed severe threat to miners suffering from pneumoconiosis (Yuan et al., 2017).

10 Analysis of airflow within mines is required to study dispersion of coal dust inside a mine(Wang

11 et al., 2017). However, the expansion of large-scale production makes the coal mining structure

12 more complex, which leads to a more complicated motion state of the airflow. Typically, there are

13 various different dust sources in FMMF, which can lead to complex and changeable dispersion

14 patterns that mix dusts with pollution.

15 Presently, the production of dust at high concentrations and with complex characteristics of

16 dispersion in FMMF greatly increases the difficulty to establish a dust suppression work

17 space(Cheng et al., 2016). This hampers prevention and control of pneumoconiosis in coal mines

18 and of mine explosions. Thus, research on the dispersion and pollution of coal dust is of great

19 significance.

20 Since the late 19th century, scholars have conducted tremendous in-depth theoretical,

21 experimental and numerical simulation research on the movement and mass concentration

22 distribution laws of the dust particles and particle swarm on the working face of coal mine. Since
2
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 the 1990s, the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method has gradually become common and

2 effective in solving the problem of multiphase flow such as dust diffusion flow, which has made

3 strides. For example, in the field of sewage treatment, the hydrodynamic behavior performance of

4 an electrochemical reactor with rotating ring electrodes was analyzed using state-of-the-art CFD

5 tools. And the effect of rotational speed on Cr removal from aqueous media was clarified

6 successfully(Martinez-Delgadillo et al., 2012). In addition, in the field of optimal design of

7 industrial equipment, a three-phase flow model together with a thermal-equilibrium model based on

8 CFD was built and applied to study the downdraft gasifier accurately. Optimal conditions were

9 suggested to maximize the syngas production and improve the quality of producer gas,

10 respectively(Yan et al., 2018). In the field of combustion systems, numerical model for fuel

11 disintegration and emission calculation was presented. NOx and soot concentrations, pressure and

12 temperature traces were calculated successfully(Petranović et al., 2015). It is clear that the CFD has

13 become a valuable tool that decreases the time and the cost of experimental research in dealing with

14 the issue of multiphase flow.

15 Over the past few years, researchers have carried out extensive studies on the issue of coal dust

16 behavior at working face, especially the fully-mechanized excavation face and underground tunnel

17 based on CFD simulation method. For example, Patankar and Joseph (2001) used Large Eddy

18 Simulation method to model airflow. They described the dust particle motion using the Lagrangian

19 method, they also modeled and analyzed the spatial distribution of dust along with flow field for

20 different values of Stokes number. To reduce the uncertainty generated by stochastic particle tracing

21 of the Lagrangian model, Ren et al.(2014) and Wang and Ren (2013) modeled and analyzed the

22 flow characteristics of airflow and respirable dust above the coal bunker underground. They

3
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 acquired results of stable airflow and dust concentration field, and effectively guided dust control at

2 the belt transshipment point. Nakayama et al.(1996) et al. simulated the migration of wind flow in a

3 fully-mechanized excavation face and found that the numerical results of air velocity were close to

4 the measured data. However, this mathematical model is not very precise because the maximum air

5 velocity on some cross section was much larger than that of measured results. Furthermore, by

6 combining field tests and numerical simulations, a method coupling a direct simulation Monte

7 Carlo scheme with a CFD software was adopted to study the temporal and spatial distributions of

8 dust particles (0.1-100 μm in diameter) in the flow field of a roadway after blasting(Hu et al., 2016).

9 Wang et al. (2015) established a numerical platform for the gas-solid, two-phase flow model in a

10 tunnel and gained an in-depth knowledge of dust distribution in tunnels under forced/exhaust

11 ventilation conditions. Sa et al. (2012) constructed a gas-solid two-phase flow model, they

12 simulated the change of dust concentration in a cavern’s stope caused by ventilation 20 min after

13 blasting had occurred and the dust movement trajectories at different wind speeds. According to

14 their results, the distribution of concentrated dust is affected significantly by the flow field of the

15 airway in a cavern. Furthermore, the effects of air volume ratio parameters on air curtain dust

16 suppression in a rock tunnel’s fully-mechanized excavation face were revealed(Wang et al., 2018).

17 Petrov et al. (2013) published an extended study of blowing curtain face ventilation systems and

18 discussed the parametric effects on flow behavior based response variables having utilized results

19 obtained from physical experiments and a statistically designed test program for CFD simulations.

20 As for coal mining working face, the incoming fresh air into the zone is treated as a continuous

21 phase and dust flow is treated either as a continuous phase (gas) or as a secondary discrete phase

22 (particle), the distributions of dust concentration inside the isolated zone obtained from each

4
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 method are presented and compared(Magesh et al., 2016). Various possible scenarios of

2 underground mine configurations are evaluated by CFD. The results indicate that the presence of

3 continuous miner adversely affects the air flow and leads to increased methane and dust

4 concentrations(Lu et al., 2017). Wang et al. (2011) used CFD software to simulate the distribution

5 of airflows and dust in a fully-mechanized mining face after an air brattice had been installed and

6 found that this was effective in blocking the diffusion towards and pollution of the operational area

7 by a high concentration of dust generated during the coal cutting process. Zhou et al.(2017)

8 simulated and studied the law of dust diffusion in four longitudinal spaces of the fully mechanized

9 mining and caving face.

10 However, most of these researches on the issue of coal dust diffusion and pollution are aimed at

11 the fully-mechanized excavation face or coal bunker underground or underground tunnel, and the

12 researches on the FMMF with more complicated physical structure and more multiple dust sources

13 variation are much limited. In addition, the adopted simulation analysis was too limited in post-

14 processing, in most cases, only the distribution of the dust concentration on few cross sections was

15 analyzed. Also the physical model is so simplified and rough that the results errors are always

16 greater. Besides, the previous study mainly focused on the total coal dust, rather than on the

17 respirable dust. As an inhalable particle less than 7.07 μm in diameter, the respirable dust can be

18 unavoidably delivered to the human respiratory system and thus causes pneumoconiosis(Yu et al.,

19 2017). The diffusion and pollution characteristics of respirable dust from different dust sources at

20 different areas of FMMF under the impact of turbulent velocity, combined with airflow streamline,

21 airflow vector and dust trace, have not been analyzed yet.

22 Because the coupled motion of airflow and respirable dust in FMMF is dynamic and extremely

5
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 complicated, in the present work, we divided the FMMF space into three longitudinal areas: the

2 advancing support area, the mining area, and the non-mining area. In order to solve these existing

3 problems, this paper adopted the finite volume method (FVM) for the simulation, whereby the

4 diffusion and pollution behavior characteristics of respirable dust at different areas under full

5 section independent negative pressure ventilation conditions based on airflow streamline, airflow

6 vector, and dust trace are systematically analyzed. And the dust particle movements under the

7 impact of turbulent inlet velocity were defined accurately. Thus, a full scale and all-sided

8 understanding of the diffusion and pollution behavior of respirable dust in FMMF can be obtained,

9 which can not only help improve the diffusion and pollution theory of dust particles in coal mining

10 face, also can help to guide the reasonable optimal arrangement of spray dust-settling equipment on

11 site, which can greatly promote the dust suppression efficiency.

6
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 2. Mathematical model

2 The movement of airborne respirable dust is a typical gas-solid two-phase flow. Therefore, in

3 establishing the mathematical model, we should not only consider the movement of the airflow, but

4 also consider the diffusion movement of the respirable dust. The following is the related

5 mathematical model in this paper.

6 2.1. Mathematical model of airflow

7 The airflow condition in FMMF typically belongs to the turbulent flow. At present, generally the

8 Reynolds time averaged equation is usually used to describe the turbulent state in engineering. The

9 basic idea is to represent the instantaneous pulsating quantity of the fluid in the time averaged

10 equation via k- two-equation models (Cabezas Gómez and Milioli, 2003).

11 It is assumed that u, v and w are the components of air velocity u in the direction of x, y and z

12 respectively. The turbulent movement is overlapped by the time averaged flow and instantaneous

13 pulsating flow, which can be expressed as follows.

14 u  u  u ; v  v  v; w  w  w (1)

15 It is assumed that the airflow is the incompressible, the continuity equation is as follows.

16   (2)
 (  ui )  0
t xi

17 The Navier - Stokes equation (momentum equation) is as follows.

  p    u j ui  
18 (  ui )  (  ui u j )       t     (3)
t x j xi x j   xi x j  

where t   C k 
2
19

20 The k equation is as follows.

 (  k )  (  kui )   t  k 
21        Gk   (4)
t xi x j    k  x j 

7
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 The  equation is as follows.

 (  )  (  ui )   t    C1  2
2       Gk  C2  (5)
t xi x j     x j  k k

 u u j  ui
3 wherein Gk  t  i  
 x j xi  x j

4 In these equations,  is air density, kg·m-3; k is turbulent kinetic energy, m2·s-2;  is dissipation

5 velocity of the turbulent kinetic energy, m2·s-3； is viscosity coefficient of the laminar flow,

6 Pa·s；t is viscosity coefficient of the turbulent flow, Pa·s；Gk is generated items of the turbulent

7 kinetic energy due to average velocity gradient, kg·(s-3·m-1); The values of C1, C2, C,  and k

8 are 1.44, 1.92, 0.09, 1.00 and 1.30 respectively.

9 2.2. Mathematic model of dust movement

10 The discrete phase model (DPM) applied is a module nested in FLUENT software to simulate

11 gas-solid two-phase flow. In this paper, the air is defined as a continuous phase and the solid

12 particle is defined as a discrete phase. The Lagrange or particle tracking model is calculated based

13 on the particle tracking equation. The variables such as velocity and density are considered.

14 The mathematic model of the dust flow is shown as follows.

 
du p    g ( p   ) 
15  FD (u  u p )  F (6)
dt p
 
16 where du p / dt represents the inertial force of the dust particle with unit mass, in which u p is the

17 particle speed vector (m/s); FD (u  u p ) represents the drag force on particle with unit mass, wherein

  
18 u is the air velocity vector (m/s), up is the particle velocity vector(m/s); g (  p   ) /  p represents

19 the sum of the gravity and buoyancy on particle with unit mass, in which ρ is the air density

20 (kg/m3), ρp represents the density of dust particle(kg/m3)； F is the additional force on dust particle

21 with unit mass, including the virtual mass force, the thermophoretic force caused by temperature
8
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 gradient, the Brownian movement force, the Saffman lift force, the Magnus lift force and so on.

2 It is assumed that the dust particle is regarded as a sphere in this paper, therefore the drag force

3 on the dust particle complies with spherical drag law, which can be expressed as follows.

    18 CD Re  
4 Fdrag  FD (u  u p )  (u  u p ) (7)
 p d p2 24

5 where CD represents the drag coefficient, which is defined as: CD  a1  a2 / Re  a3 / Re2 , wherein a1 ,
 
6 a2 and a3 are all constants; Re is the Reynolds number, which is defined as: Re   d p u p  u /  , dp

7 is particle diameter (kg/m3).

8 Gravity and buoyancy are the two basic forces influencing the movement of the dust particles

9 (Lötstedt and Carlbom, 1997). For convenience, the sum force F of the gravity and buoyancy are

10 expressed as follows.

     m  
11 Ff  mg   gVP  mg   g  mg (  P   ) /  P   d p3 g (  P   ) / 6 (8)
P

12 A number of other forces act on the dust particles(Klemens et al., 2001). The virtual mass force

13 of the dust particles produced by the apparent mass effect is as follows.

  
14 Fvm  VP (du / dt  dup / dt ) / 2 (9)

15 where VP is particle volume (m3). However, the virtual mass force comes into effect only when the

16 fluid density is larger than respirable dust particle density (McKenna Neuman et al., 2009), which is

17 not the case of the present study and is therefore ignored. At the same time, the air and respirable

18 dust flow is under isothermal condition. Thus the thermophoresis force caused by temperature

19 gradient and the Brownian motion force also zero out.


20 The pressure gradient force FP is the force exerted on dust particles by the pressure difference in

21 the gas phase fluid, and its expression in the x axial direction is as follows:

9
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 FP  VP (P / x) （10）

2 The whirling of the dust particles in the air phase produces a lifting force, the so-called

3 Magnus lift force ( FMag ), which is generally of the same order of magnitude as the gravity force,

4 and can be expressed as:

   
5 FMag   d p3  (u  up ) / 2 （11）

6 The gas phase fluid has a velocity gradient, so the air velocity in both two sides of the dust

7 particles is different. Therefore a lift force works on the dust particles, which is called Saffman lift

8 force ( FSaf ), and it is expressed in the x axial direction as:
  
9 Fsaf  1.61  d p2 (u  up ) du （12）
dx

10 Finally, the total force acting on dust particles can now be expressed as:

du p     
11  Fdrag  Ff  FP +FMag  FSaf (13)
dt

12 Before the movement of the respirable particles is solved, the N-S (Navier-Stokes) equation of

13 the gas phase fluid should be solved under the Euler coordinate system. After the calculation results

14 converge, the respirable particles will be introduced to the gas phase fluid via different dust sources,

15 then the movement status of the respirable dust particles under the Lagrange coordinate system is

16 solved, which is represented by the particle tracking equation. In the process of solution, only one-

17 way coupling effect of gas phase fluids on the solid particles is considered. After the solution

18 converges, movement results of the respirable particles can be obtained. In essence, movement

19 solution of the respirable particle indicates the integration of the differential equation of the acting

20 force on the respirable particles(Toraño et al., 2011).

10
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 3. Physical model and simulation parameter settings

2 Before numerical solution, the construction of physical model and numerical simulation

3 parameters setting are essential steps in the preprocessing stage, their accuracy determines the

4 veracity and reliability of the results of numerical simulation to a great extent.

5 3.1. Physical model and area division

6 Currently the SolidWorks software is one of the most powerful and most popular 3D CAD

7 solutions in the world, which can provide different solutions, reduce errors in design and improve

8 product quality. The SolidWorks software is applied to construct the constant proportional

9 geometric model of the Daliuta 52305-1 FMMF with a complicated structural space. The outer

10 contour is a cuboid with its length, width and height of 90.0 m, 7.2 m and 6.9 m, respectively,

11 which contains 60 gapless fully-mechanized hydraulic supports with their width of 1.5 m. The

12 distance between top beam of hydraulic support and floor is 6.9 m. The distance from the coal wall

13 to the tail beam of the hydraulic support is 7.2 m. The height of hydraulic support base is 0.4 m. The

14 length, width and height of the coal shearer main body is 6.0 m, 2.0 m and 2.5 m, the length of

15 rocker arm is 3.5 m, the diameter and thickness of drum are 2.5 m and 0.8 m, respectively. The coal

16 shearer is arranged 24.0 m away from the leeward side of air inlet. The advancing support

17 procedure begins at the distance of 2 supports away from shearer’s back drum during coal mining.

18 Fig. 1 shows the physical model of Daliuta 52305-1 FMMF.

19 To describe this physical model more intuitively and to study the diffusion behavior law of

20 respirable dusts in different areas of FMMF in details, the entire working face space is divided into

21 advancing support area (15 m long) and non-advancing support area (75 m long) in this paper. And

22 the latter is further composed of mining area (15 m long) and non-mining area (60 m long). It’s to

23 be mentioned that the sections of mining area and non-mining area are different from each other due

24 to the existence of cutting depth caused by coal cutting. The interface between the two areas is

25 defined as variable cross section. The partitioning basis, characteristics, length and dust source

26 characteristics of the three areas are shown in Table 1. For deployment of the three areas, refer to
11
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 Fig.2.

2 3.2. Mesh construction

3 The physical models of the fluid field in FMMF calculated via the Boolean calculation is saved

4 as the universal CAD files with IGES format and is imported into the ANSYS ICEM CFD software.

5 First, the points, lines and faces of the geometric bodies are repaired.

6 The ICEM software is used to conduct global and local mesh partitioning on the above geometric

7 models. The coal mining area has the densest fluid and flowing dust and requires the precise

8 calculation in numerical simulation. This area demands high in mesh. If the mesh quality is too low,

9 the simulation quality will reduce naturally, a failure to reach the expected level. When the local

10 mesh is set, the maximal mesh size is set as 0.4 m, 0.2 m and 0.4 m respectively in the advancing

11 support completion area, coal mining area and non-mining area to increase the mesh density in the

12 coal mining area and enhance accuracy of the numerical simulation results in this area. Next, the

13 mesh quality is checked to delete the mesh with its quality less than 0.3. After the repair, unrelated

14 mesh points should be deleted via the mesh check to improve the mesh quality. Fig. 3 shows the

15 optimized mesh quality distribution on the surface of the geometric model. Table 2 shows the

16 proportion distribution statistics of the mesh quality.

17 After the analysis, the obtained mesh model features reasonable mesh type, appropriate density

18 and higher quality. The percent of mesh for which the quality is more than 0.4 reaches 98.403%.

19 3.3. Mesh independence study

20 The mesh independent test aims to validate the accuracy and scientificity of the mesh partition

21 scheme, therefore another finer mesh is designed for comparative analysis. The maximal mesh size

22 in the advancing support completion area, coal mining area and non-mining area is set as 0.2 m, 0.1

23 m and 0.2 m respectively. Other operations are not changed. This scheme is defined as “0.2-0.1-

24 0.2”. The former scheme is defined as “0.4-0.2-0.4”. Fig. 4 shows the respirable dust concentration

25 and field concentration distribution among two meshing cases.

26 The measurement points are deployed at the height of breathing zone of the sidewalk space on
12
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 the leeward side of the advancing support procedure where the miner activity is the most intensive.

2 In Fig. 4, y axis represents the distance from the measurement point section to the section of the

3 advancing support procedure. The analysis results show that the relative error of the two kinds of

4 mesh partitioning schemes is less than 10%, also both of them reflect the same variation trend as the

5 field test results. It indicates that the full scale numerical simulation results in “0.4-0.2-0.4” mesh

6 scheme can accurately reflect the partition diffusion and pollution law of the airborne respirable

7 dust in FMMF.

8 3.4. Parameter settings

9 Dust source of inlet air carrying (DSIAC), dust source of advancing support (DSAS), dust source

10 of front drum (DSFD) and dust source of back drum (DSBD) are the four primary disposable dust

11 sources in FMMF(Ren et al., 2014). According to requirements in national and industrial standards

12 such as China 2016 “Coal Mine Safety Regulation”, the filter membrane sampling method is used

13 for dust sampling on the field. The AKFC-92A type mine dust sampler produced by Changshu

14 Mine Mechanical and Electrical Equipment Co., Ltd. is used. Its shell is made of high-strength ABS

15 (Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene) engineering plastic and is specially treated for humidity, dust and

16 static prevention, as shown in Fig. 5.

17 To ensure the reliability of dust data around the measured dust sources, 5 measurement points

18 should be deployed at the 5-10m position in the leeward direction of each dust source, and the

19 arithmetic or geometrical mean is finally calculated. In addition, dust sampling process is carried

20 out 30min after the coal mining operation due to the dust generation characteristics in FMMF.

21 The air volume flow is controlled at 20 L/min during the sampling. The air volume flow is kept

22 stable during the sampling. The average temperature is 29.8 ℃ in the Daliuta 52305-1 FMMF and

23 the inlet air velocity is 1.4 m/s. The traction velocity of the coal shearer is 5.3 m/min. The rotational

24 velocity of the drum keeps 120 r/min. The Winner 99 microscopic particle image analyzer is

25 applied to analyze the particle diameter distribution. Fig. 6 shows the particle diameter frequency

13
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 and accumulative distribution of the respirable dust from different dust sources.

2 Fig. 6 shows that: (1) The particle diameter frequency distribution for different dust sources is

3 roughly in line with the normal function. Through the least square regression analysis and

4 significance test, it is found that the respirable dust particle diameter from three dust sources obeys

5 the Rosin-Rammer distribution; (2) The diameters of the respirable dusts are divided into five

6 levels: 0-1 µm, 1-2 µm, 2-4 µm, 4-6 µm and 6-7.07 µm. Their means of frequency distribution are

7 9.33 %, 18.75 %, 32.81 %, 24.40 % and 14.71 % respectively. Except the dust source of back drum,

8 the peak range of particle diameter of other three dust sources is 2-4 µm, which indicates that the

9 sampling is representative; (3) The median diameters of the DSIAC, DSFD, DSBD and DSAS are

10 2.12 µm, 3.44 µm, 4.27 µm and 2.95 µm respectively.

11 Based on the analysis of actual measurements, respirable dust parameters of different dust

12 sources are set. The results are shown in table 3. The turbulent model is set as the standard k–ε two-

13 equation model. The entrance boundary type is “Velocity_Inlet”. The turbulent kinetic energy and

14 turbulent dissipation coefficient parameters are used to define the turbulent state of the airflow. The

15 outlet boundary type is “Outflow”. The energy equation is closed, however the discrete phase model

16 is opened. The respirable dust particle is tracked in a stochastic tracking manner and the time scale

17 of the stochastic tracking is set as 0.15.

14
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 4. Simulation results and discussion

2 The airflow fluid field characteristics and the respirable dusts diffusion and pollution

3 characteristics in Daliuta 52305-1 FMMF when the inlet air velocity is 0.5 m/s, 1.0 m/s, 1.5 m/s, 2.0

4 m/s, 2.5 m/s, 3.0 m/s, 3.5 m/s and 4.0 m/s respectively is obtained by numerical simulation based on

5 above mathematical model of airflow and dust particles with the software ANSYS FLUENT.

6 The steady solver, standard k–ε two-equation model and the SIMPLE algorithm based on the

7 collocated mesh are selected before solution process. Firstly, the single-phase airflow fluid field is

8 solved, after that convergences, the movement of the discrete phase - respirable dust particle is

9 solved.

10 4.1. Airflow diffusion

11 Non-advancing support area, the breathing zone height and the area around the coal shearer are

12 investigated during the analysis of airflow diffusion.

13 4.1.1. Air velocity distribution law in non-advancing support area

14 16 cross sections are set 5 m apart from each other in non-advancing support area. The average

15 air velocity of each section is shown in table 4.

v0 represents the inlet air velocity of the working

16 face, v represents the average air velocity on each cross section and v represents steady velocity

17 after fluctuation.
  v / v0 is defined to represent the time relation between the steady velocity and

18 inlet air velocity, which can help us to know more about the characteristics of the airflow fluid field.

19 The variation trends of the average air velocity on each section along the leeward side in non-

20 advancing support area under different

v0 are shown in Fig. 7.

21 From table 4 and Fig. 7, it can be acknowledged that with the increase of the inlet air velocity, the

22 average air velocity at the same cross section will increase by certain time. The changing trend of

23 the average air velocity along the distance under each inlet air velocity shows strong regularity: the

24 average air velocity increases along the airflow direction in the beginning and reaches the maximum

15
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 at 15 m of leeward side away from the advancing support procedure, which results from to the

2 block effect of coal shearer and the existence of variable cross section. After that, the it slightly

3 decreases and gradually approximates to a steady value v . Generally v is larger than v0 and is

4 1.06-1.68 times over v0. With the increases of v0,  gradually decreases and approximates to 1. It

5 indicates that the steady air velocity of non-advancing support area approximates to the inlet air

6 velocity more closely when the inlet air velocity is getting larger.

7 4.1.2. Analysis on the distribute on characteristics of airflow fluid field

8 The section of breathing zone height (z=1.55 m) is selected. 7 sections in the area around the coal

9 shearer is also selected (the interval among each cross section is 5 m) to get the distribution diagram

10 of airflow fluid field under different v0, as shown in Fig. 8 and Fig. 9.

11 As shown in Fig. 8, the air velocity distribution is very different at the height of breathing zone in

12 FMMF under different v0, however it also shows a certain degree of regularity.

13 At the beginning part of FMMF, air velocity is slightly lower than v0 in advancing support area.

14 Air velocity changes the most significantly near coal shearer of FMMF. In detail, a narrow and long

15 high-velocity airflow zone is formed between the hydraulic pillar and coal shearer due to the

16 blocking action of coal shearer, which phenomenon is especially obvious when v0 is larger than 2.0

17 m/s. The air velocity is too low between the coal wall and coal shearer, which will result in

18 accumulation of plentiful dust. After air passes through the front drum of coal shearer, the sectional

19 area decreases, meanwhile air velocity increases, which further lead to the formation of maximal air

20 velocity zone at the height of breathing zone of FMMF from the variable cross section. The value of

21 maximal air velocity can reach 1.44 - 2.52 times over v0 and this value gradually decreases as v0

22 increases. The minimal air velocity at the height of breathing zone exists in the area that is between

23 the rocker arm of back drum and coal wall and near the hydraulic pillar closely.

24 The maximal air velocity zone at the height of breathing zone is first formed around the variable

25 cross section and extends all the way to the leeward side. The extension length increases with the

16
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 increase of v0. When v0 is larger than 3 m/s, this zone longitudinally extends to the position of

2 multiple procedures. In view of lateral space distribution, this zone is distributed from sidewalk to

3 coal wall. With the increase of v0, the turbulent kinetic energy and turbulent dissipation rate

4 gradually increase in this zone, which also means more significant fluctuation of air velocity in a

5 random manner, which further leads to the formation of wave shape edge of this zone in case of v0

6 is larger than 2.0 m/s and the partial low velocity area inside this zone.

7 The area around the coal shearer is one of main activity areas for the coal miners and is also the

8 area with maximal spatial volume change in FMMF. As shown in Fig. 9, the airflow experiences

9 the most complicated change around the coal shearer, but it still shows a certain degree of

10 regularity.

11 When v0 is larger than 1.0 m/s, with the continuous increase of v0, the airflow vector becomes

12 more and more chaotic around the coal shearer, which means that coal shearer, cable groove and

13 other main mechanical & electric equipment have a more and more significant turbulence effect on

14 airflow so as to lead it diffuse laterally to the sidewalk more and more obvious. For v0 is less than or

15 equal to 1.0 m/s, the airflow is roughly under the laminar state. At this time, main mechanical &

16 electric equipment such as coal shearer and cable groove have a minor turbulence effect on airflow.

17 After the airflow encounters the coal shearer, most of the airflow bypasses the coal shearer and

18 diffuse to the above zone and the driver side when the airflow encounters the coal shearer, which

19 leads to the quickly increase of air velocity due to the reduced spatial volume. When v0 is getting

20 larger, this phenomenon becomes more significant. Meanwhile, a small part of the airflow flows

21 along coal wall axially, which leads to a much lower air velocity zone between coal wall and

22 shearer body.

23 After the air flow into the non-mining area via the variable cross section, the streamlines are

24 getting denser and the air velocity increases again. A continuous area with irregular shape with the

25 maximum air velocity in FMMF from the variation section to the leeward side due to overlapping

17
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 influence of the twice increase of air velocity is formed. Further, the air velocity becomes higher,

2 the scope is more extensive, and the shape gets more irregular as v0 increases.

3 4.2. Respirable dust diffusion and pollution

4 Non-advancing support area, the breathing zone height, the area around the coal shearer and the

5 sidewalk space are investigated during the analysis of respirable dust diffusion and pollution.

6 4.2.1. Respirable dust concentration distribution law in non-advancing support area

7 The average respirable dust concentration of each section is shown in Table 5. In the table, c

8 represents the dust concentration of each section under different v0, c represents mean respirable

9 dust concentration of all cross sections in non-advancing support area at under different v0, The

10 variation trends of the average respirable dust concentration of each section in non-advancing

11 support area under different v0 are shown in Fig. 10.

12 At 0-5 m, the average respirable dust concentration significantly increases due to overlapping

13 influences of dust generated by advancing support and cutting of back drum. With the increase of

14 v0, the increasing degree of the average respirable dust concentration gradually slows down. At 5-10

15 m, the average respirable dust concentration decreases and the decreasing degree increases with the

16 increase of v0.

17 At 10-15 m, the average respirable dust concentration grows again. The lower the v0 is, the more

18 concentration the respirable dust grows. After passing variable cross section, the average respirable

19 dust concentration slightly decreases and gradually approximate to a stable value. It indicates that

20 settlement of the respirable dust is not significant and most respirable dust particles are under

21 floating state due to enough air volume, large space and small particle diameter when the respirable

22 dust diffuses to the leeward side.

23 4.2.2. Respirable dust concentration distribution law in 3D space in FMMF

24 The respirable dust concentration distribution of breathing zone height and area around coal

25 shearer is obtained, as shown in Fig. 11 and Fig. 12.

26 From Fig. 11, the respirable dust concentration distribution of breathing zone height in FMMF
18
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 under different inlet air velocity can be described as follows.

2 In advancing support area, breathing zone height is mainly affected by DSIAC. Although the

3 respirable dust concentration is much lower than any other position, it’s also essential to install the

4 high-pressure micro-droplet sprayer that can cover the full section at the top of the beginning

5 FMMF near inlet in order to purify the intake airflow as much as possible.

6 In non-advancing support area, breathing zone height is affected by all four dust sources,

7 especially DSBD and DSFD. In view of lateral space distribution, the respirable dust concentration

8 of the space in front of support and the machine passage space is relatively higher than that of the

9 sidewalk space and goaf. When v0 increases from 1.0 m/s to 1.5 m/s, the scope of high-

10 concentration respirable dust area where concentration is more than 1440 mg/m3 ,namely red area in

11 Fig.11, shrinks the most significantly. However, if v0 continues to increase, the shrinking degree of

12 this area’s scope is not significant at all.

13 The settlement effect of dust generated from DSAS and the lateral diffusion effect of dust

14 generated from DSBD and DSFD is the main cause of pollution in the sidewalk space at breathing

15 zone height. With the increase of v0, both of above effects will be weakened, which leads to

16 continuous decrease of respirable dust concentration in the sidewalk space at breathing zone height.

17 From the Fig. 12, the respirable dust concentration distribution around coal shearer where the

18 airflow velocity changes the most complicatedly in FMMF under different inlet air velocity can be

19 described as follows.

20 The respirable dust concentration on the leeward side of the coal shearer is significantly higher

21 than that on the windward side. The average concentration of DSAS and DSFD is more than 1600

22 mg/m3.

23 The respirable dust from DSAS mainly diffuses to the leeward side along the roof，at the same

24 time it sinks gradually and diffuses to the whole working face section. With growth of v0, the

25 settlement of the respirable dust from DSAS gradually becomes insignificant. When v0 is not less

19
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 than 3 m/s, the high-concentration (the concentration is higher than 1440 mg/m3) respirable dust

2 area around the roof due to DSAS roughly disappears, which indicates the optimum inlet velocity

3 for dustproof by ventilation of DSAS.

4 Among the four dust sources, the respirable dust from DSBD is affected by the airflow

5 turbulence the most. Most respirable dust from DSBD bypasses the above area and driver side of

6 coal shearer to diffuse and be quickly diluted under action of the high-velocity airflow. Higher v0 is,

7 smaller scope of the respirable dust diffusing to the above area and driver side of coal shearer is and

8 lower the concentration is. Partial respirable dust from DSBD diffuses to the space between coal

9 shearer and coal wall due to the airflow against coal wall. Because of the little airflow volume and

10 the small air velocity at this space, the dust that has diffused here accumulates here to form a high-

11 concentration respirable dust area.

12 The respirable dust from DSFD mainly moves to the leeward side against coal wall under acting

13 of the high-velocity airflow. When v0 is not larger than 1.0 m/s, the respirable dust significantly

14 diffuses laterally and sinks. When v0 is larger than 1.0 m/s, the respirable dust for lateral diffusion

15 and settlement becomes less and the respirable dust concentration decreases continuously with the

16 increase of v0.

17 4.2.3. Respirable dust concentration distribution in sidewalk space

18 The breathing zone height of the sidewalk space is no doubt the most important position to study

19 the distribution law of the respirable dust concentration in FMMF. The sidewalk is the most

20 intensive personnel activity area on the working face. The respirable dust concentration distribution

21 at the breathing zone height will directly determine the hazard of the respirable dust to miners.

22 In the sidewalk space, the respirable dust from DSAS will first move leeward along the roof, after

23 front drum, significant diffusion and settlement occur that pollutes the sidewalk space. In addition,

24 the diffusion of respirable dust from cutting coal contributes much to total respirable dust

25 concentration of the sidewalk space. Therefore, when spraying is used for dust fall in FMMF, not

20
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 only the respirable dust from different dust sources should be effectively captured in time, it is also

2 very important to obstruct the diffusion of the respirable dust from cutting coal to the sidewalk

3 space.

4 The Fig. 13 shows the variation law of the respirable dust concentration at the breathing zone

5 height in the sidewalk space along the distance without any spraying and dust fall measurement.

6 With the analysis, it can provide effective basis for respirable dust prevention and governance.

7 As shown in Fig. 13, in terms of mining area, the respirable dust concentration is high at the

8 middle area and low at two ends, which indicates that the respirable dust concentration at the

9 corresponding sidewalk position of coal shearer driver reaches the maximum. Meanwhile, with the

10 increase of v0, the respirable dust concentration at the breathing zone height in the sidewalk space

11 will continuously decrease. However, in terms of non-mining area, the respirable dust concentration

12 gradually increases and then fluctuates around a certain value. And when v0 increases from 0.5 m/s

13 to 2.5 m/s, the respirable dust concentration will continuously decrease on the way. When v0

14 continues to increase from 2.5 m/s, the respirable dust concentration on the way doesn’t decrease

15 significantly but fluctuates at around 380 mg/m3.

16 4.2.4. Relationship between v0 and dust concentration

17 The Fig. 14 shows the fitted curves of the relationship between the average respirable dust

18 concentration of breathing zone height and v0.

19 As shown in Fig. 14, with the increase of v0, the average respirable dust concentration of

20 breathing zone height gradually decreases. At last stage, the respirable dust concentration decreases

21 to the value which is smaller than 300 mg/m3. However, this concentration value still exceeds the

22 regulated state standard much, which indicates that it is not sufficient to improve the air quality

23 inside the mine only via ventilation. After v0 reaches 2.5 m/s, if v0 continues to increase, the

24 decreasing rate of the average respirable dust concentration of breathing zone height slow down

25 significantly.

21
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 5. Conclusions

2 The diffuse pollution characteristics of respirable dust at different areas of FMMF under the

3 impact of turbulent inlet velocity based on airflow streamline, airflow vector, and dust trace are

4 systematically analyzed. After the airflow encounters the coal shearer, most of the airflow bypasses

5 the coal shearer and diffuse to the above zone and the driver side when the airflow encounters the

6 coal shearer, which leads to the quickly increase of air velocity due to the reduced spatial volume,

7 this phenomenon is more significant when v0 gets larger.

8 With the increase of the inlet air velocity, the average respirable dust concentration in non-

9 advancing support area and at the breathing zone height continuously decreases but the decreasing

10 rate gradually slows down, which indicates that it’s not efficient to remove dust just by increasing

11 the inlet air velocity when it reaches a certain value. When the inlet air velocity increases from 1.0

12 m/s to 1.5 m/s at the breathing zone height, the area scope whose respirable dust concentration is

13 over 1440 mg/m3 decreases significantly, if the air velocity continues to increase, the decreasing

14 degree of this area grope is no longer significant.

15 As for the respirable dust from DSAS, it mainly diffuses to the leeward side along the roof. When

16 v0 is not less than 3 m/s, the high-concentration (the concentration is higher than 1440 mg/m3)

17 respirable dust area around the roof due to DSAS roughly disappears. As for the respirable dust

18 from DSBD, most part bypasses the above area and driver side of coal shearer to diffuse and be

19 quickly diluted under action of the high-velocity airflow. Higher v0 is, smaller scope of the

20 respirable dust diffusing to the above area and driver side of coal shearer is and lower the

21 concentration is. As for the respirable dust from DSFD, it mainly moves to the leeward side against

22 coal wall under acting of the high-velocity airflow. When v0 is not larger than 1.0 m/s, the respirable

23 dust significantly diffuses laterally and sinks. When v0 is larger than 1.0 m/s, the respirable dust for

22
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 lateral diffusion and settlement becomes less and the respirable dust concentration decreases

2 continuously with the increase of v0. Research results show that the decreasing rate of the average

3 respirable dust concentration at the breathing zone height gradually slows down after v0 is larger

4 than 2.5 m/s.

5 Acknowledgements
6 This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of

7 China (Grant no. 2017YFC0805202), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no.

8 51774198, 51474139), the Outstanding Youth Fund Project of Provincial Universities in Shandong

9 Province (Grant no. ZR2017JL026), the Taishan Scholar Talent Team Support Plan for Advantaged

10 & Unique Discipline Areas, the Qingdao City Science and Technology Project (Grant no. 16-6-2-

11 52-nsh), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Funded Special Project (Grant no.

12 2016T90642), the China ostdoctoral Science Foundation Funded Project (Grant no. 2015M570602),

13 the Qingdao Postdoctoral Applied Research Project (Grant no. 2015194).

23
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 References
2 Cabezas Gómez, L., Milioli, F.E., 2003. Numerical study on the influence of various physical parameters over the gas–
3 solid two-phase flow in the 2D riser of a circulating fluidized bed. Powder Technol. 132, 216–225.
4 Cheng, W., Yu, H., Zhou, G., Nie, W., 2016. The diffusion and pollution mechanisms of airborne dusts in fully-
5 mechanized excavation face at mesoscopic scale based on CFD-DEM. Process Saf. Environ. Prot. 104, 240–253.
6 Fan, T., Zhou, G., Wang, J., 2018. Preparation and Characterization of a Wetting-Agglomeration-Based Hybrid Coal
7 Dust Suppressant. Process Saf. Environ. Prot. 113, 282-291.
8 Hu, S., Feng, G., Ren, X., Xu, G., Chang, P., Wang, Z., Zhang, Y., Li, Z., Gao, Q., 2016. Numerical study of gas–solid
9 two-phase flow in a coal roadway after blasting. Adv. Powder Technol. 27, 1607–1617.
10 Klemens, R., Kosinski, P., Wolanski, P., Korobeinikov, V.P., Markov, V. V, Menshov, I.S., Semenov, I. V, 2001.
11 Numerical study of dust lifting in a channel with vertical obstacles. J. Loss Prev. Process Ind. 14, 469–473.
12 Labovsky, A., Trenchea, C., 2011. Large eddy simulation for turbulent magnetohydrodynamic flows. J. Math. Anal.
13 Appl. 377, 516–533.
14 Lötstedt, P., Carlbom, P., 1997. Stability and non-normality of the k-ε equations. J. Comput. Appl. Math. 83, 11–37.
15 Lu, Y., Saad, A., Sasmito, A.P., Kurnia, J.C., 2017. Prediction of air flow, methane, and coal dust dispersion in a room
16 and pillar mining face. Int. J. Min. Sci. Technol. 27, 657–662.
17 Magesh, T., Zheng, Y., Tien, J.C., 2016. DPM simulation in an underground entry: Comparison between particle and
18 species models. Int. J. Min. Sci. Technol. 26, 487–494.
19 Martinez-Delgadillo, S., Mollinedo-Ponce, H., Mendoza-Escamilla, V., Gutiérrez-Torres, C., Jiménez-Bernal, J.,
20 Barrera-Diaz, C., 2012. Performance evaluation of an electrochemical reactor used to reduce Cr(VI) from aqueous
21 media applying CFD simulations. J. Clean. Prod. 34, 120–124.
22 McKenna Neuman, C., Boulton, J.W., Sanderson, S., 2009. Wind tunnel simulation of environmental controls on
23 fugitive dust emissions from mine tailings. Atmos. Environ. 43, 520–529.
24 Nakayama, S., Uchino, K., Inoue, M., 1996. 3 Dimensional flow measurement at heading face and application of CFD.
25 Shigen-to-Sozai 112, 638–644.
26 Patankar, N.A., Joseph, D.D., 2001. Modeling and numerical simulation of particulate flows by the Eulerian–
27 Lagrangian approach. Int. J. Multiph. Flow 27, 1659–1684.
28 Petranović, Z., Vujanović, M., Duić, N., 2015. Towards a more sustainable transport sector by numerically simulating
29 fuel spray and pollutant formation in diesel engines. J. Clean. Prod. 88, 272–279.
30 Petrov, T., Wala, A.M., Huang, G., 2013. Parametric study of airflow separation phenomenon at face area during deep
31 cut continuous mining. Min. Technol. 122, 208–214.
32 Ren, T., Wang, Z., Cooper, G., 2014. CFD modelling of ventilation and dust flow behaviour above an underground bin
33 and the design of an innovative dust mitigation system. Tunn. Undergr. Sp. Technol. 41, 241–254.
34 Sa, Z., Li, F., Qin, B., Pan, X., 2012. Numerical simulation study of dust concentration distribution regularity in cavern
35 stope. Saf. Sci. 50, 857–860.
36 Toraño, J., Torno, S., Menéndez, M., Gent, M., 2011. Auxiliary ventilation in mining roadways driven with
37 roadheaders: Validated CFD modelling of dust behaviour. Tunn. Undergr. Sp. Technol. 26, 201–210.
38 Wang, H., Cheng, W., Sun, B., Yu, H., Jin, H., 2017. The impacts of the axial-to-radial airflow quantity ratio and
39 suction distance on air curtain dust control in a fully mechanized coal face. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 1–15.
40 Wang, H., Nie, W., Cheng, W., Liu, Q., Jin, H., 2018. Effects of air volume ratio parameters on air curtain dust
41 suppression in a rock tunnel’s fully-mechanized working face. Adv. Powder Technol. 29, 230–244.
42 Wang, P., Feng, T., Liu, R., 2011. Numerical simulation of dust distribution at a fully mechanized face under the
43 isolation effect of an air curtain. Int. J. Min. Sci. Technol. 21, 65–69.
24
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

1 Wang, Y., Luo, G., Geng, F., Li, Y., Li, Y., 2015. Numerical study on dust movement and dust distribution for hybrid
2 ventilation system in a laneway of coal mine. J. Loss Prev. Process Ind. 36, 146–157.
3 Wang, Z., Ren, T., 2013. Investigation of airflow and respirable dust flow behaviour above an underground bin. Powder
4 Technol. 250, 103–114.
5 Xu, C., Zhou, G., Qiu, H., 2017. Analysis of the microscopic mechanism of coal wettability evolution in different
6 metamorphic states based on NMR and XPS experiments. Rsc Adv. 7, 47954–47965.
7 Yan, W., Shen, Y., You, S., Sim, S., Luo, Z., Tong, Y., Wang, C., 2018. Model-Based Downdraft Biomass Gasifier
8 Operation and Design for Synthetic Gas Production. J. Clean. Prod. 178, 476-493.
9 Yu, H., Cheng, W., Wu, L., Wang, H., Xie, Y., 2017. Mechanisms of dust diffuse pollution under forced-exhaust
10 ventilation in fully-mechanized excavation faces by CFD-DEM. Powder Technol. 317, 31–47.
11 Yuan, J., Han, R., Esther, A., Wu, Q., Yang, J., Yan, W., Ji, X., Liu, Y., Li, Y., Yao, W., Ni, C., 2017. Polymorphisms
12 in autophagy related genes and the coal workers’ pneumoconiosis in a Chinese population. Gene 632, 36–42.
13 Zhou, G., Zhang, Q., Bai, R., Fan, T., Wang, G., 2017. The diffusion behavior law of respirable dust at fully
14 mechanized caving face in coal mine: CFD numerical simulation and engineering application. Process Saf.
15 Environ. Prot. 106, 117–128.
16

25
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Figure Captions
Fig. 1. Geometric model of Daliuta 52305-1 FMMF
Fig. 2. Deployment of the three areas of Daliuta 52305-1 FMMF
Fig. 3. Distribution of mesh quality of physical model after optimation
Fig. 4. The comparison of the respirable dust concentration at various position of y axis among two meshing cases
Fig. 5. AKFC-92A type mine dust sampler
Fig. 6. Particle size frequency and cumulative distribution of different respirable dust sources
Fig. 7. Variation trends of average air velocity of each section in non-advancing support area
Fig. 8. Air velocity distribution at the height of breathing zone
Fig. 9. Air velocity and vector distribution near the shearer
Fig. 10. Variation trends of average respirable dust concentration of each section in non-advancing support area
Fig. 11 Respirable dust concentration distribution at breathing zone height
Fig. 12. Respirable dust concentration distribution near the shearer
Fig. 13. Variation law of respirable dust concentration at the height of breathing zone of sidewalk space
Fig. 14 The fitted curves of the relationship between v0 and the c

1
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Fig. 1. Geometric model of Daliuta 52305-1 FMMF.

Fig. 2. Deployment of the three areas of Daliuta 52305-1FMMF

Fig.3. Distribution of mesh quality of physical model after optimation

2
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Fig. 4. The comparison of the respirable dust concentration at various position of y axis among two meshing cases

Fig. 5. AKFC-92A type mine dust sampler

3
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

100 100 100 100

90.02
90 90 86.44

80 74.71 Frequency 80 Frequency

distribution distribution
70 70
Cumulative 59.42 Cumulative

Proportion/%
Proportion/%

60 60
distribution distribution
50 50
39.04
40 35.67 40
30.75 28.67
30 30 27.02
24.87
17.62 21.42
20 15.31 20 13.56
9.98
10 10 5.88

0 0
0-1 1-2 2-4 4-6 6-7.07 0-1 1-2 2-4 4-6 6-7.07
Range of particle size /μm Range of particle size /μm

(a) DSIAC (b) DSFD

100 100 100
100
90 90 88.16
80 76.48 80
Frequency Frequency
70 distribution distribution
70 65.32
Cumulative
Proportion/%

60 Cumulative
Proportion/%

60
distribution distribution
50 44.04 50
40 40 36.44
30.46 32.44
28.88
30 23.52 30 22.84
20 20 18.32
13.58 11.84
10.33 10.56
10 3.25 10
0 0
0-1 1-2 2-4 4-6 6-7.07 0-1 1-2 2-4 4-6 6-7.07
Range of particle size /μm Range of particle size /μm

(c) DSBD (d) DSAS

Fig. 6. Particle size frequency and cumulative distribution of different respirable dust sources

Fig.7. Variation trends of average air velocity of each section in non-advancing support area

4
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

(a)
v0 =0.5 m/s (b)
v0 =1.0 m/s (c)
v0 =1.5 m/s (d)
v0 =2.0 m/s

(e)
v0 =2.5 m/s (f)
v0 =3.0 m/s (g)
v0 =3.5 m/s (h)
v0 =4.0 m/s

Fig. 8. Air velocity distribution at the height of breathing zone

(a)
v0 =0.5 m/s (b)
v0 =1.0 m/s (c)
v0 =1.5 m/s (d)
v0 =2.0 m/s

(e)
v0 =2.5 m/s (f)
v0 =3.0 m/s (g)
v0 =3.5 m/s (h)
v0 =4.0 m/s

Fig. 9. Air velocity and vector distribution near the shearer

5
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Fig. 10. Variation trends of average respirable dust concentration of each section in non-advancing support area

(a)
v0 =0.5m/s (b)
v0 =1.0m/s (c)
v0 =1.5m/s (d)
v0 =2.0m/s

(e)
v0 =2.5m/s (f)
v0 =3.0m/s (g)
v0 =3.5m/s (h)
v0 =4.0m/s

Fig. 11 Respirable dust concentration distribution at breathing zone height

(a)
v0 =0.5m/s (b)
v0 =1.0m/s (c)
v0 =1.5m/s (d)
v0 =2.0m/s

6
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

(e)
v0 =2.5m/s (f)
v0 =3.0m/s (g)
v0 =3.5m/s (h)
v0 =4.0m/s

Fig. 12. Respirable dust concentration distribution near the shearer

Fig. 13. Variation law of respirable dust concentration at the height of breathing zone of sidewalk space

1200
1111.21
Concentration of respirable dust c/(mg/m3)

1000

800
624.59
600 c = 644.06v0-0.714
R² = 0.9861

387.08
400 433.89 360.09
313.37
233.83
200 260.16

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
v0/(m/s)

Fig.14. The fitted curves of the relationship between v0 and the c

7
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Highlights：

(1) Full scale refined partition physical model with original proportion.

(2) Parameters setting based on field measurement with more precise apparatus.

(3) Partition pollution of respirable dust from different dust sources is studied.

(4) The pollution mechanism of respirable dust under different velocity is obtained.

(5) The maximal allowable turbulent velocity for dust removal is investigated.

1
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Table Captions
Table 1 Area division of fully-mechanized mining face
Table 2 Proportional statistics of mesh quality
Table 3 Main simulation parameters setting of different respirable dust sources
Table 4 Average air velocity at each section in non-advancing support area
Table 5 Average respirable dust concentration at each section in non-advancing support area

1
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Table1
Area division of fully-mechanized mining face.
Area name Partitioning basis Area characteristics Length/m Dust source characteristics
Advancing support The hydraulic support is close to
Advancing Including one dust source, namely dust
work procedure is the mined coal wall and the space 15
support area source of inlet air carrying (DSIAC)
completed structure is singular

The hydraulic support isn’t close

The support is not Including three dust sources, namely
to the coal wall and lags behind
advanced dust source of advancing support
other hydraulic supports in
Mining area meanwhile the coal 15 (DSAS), dust source of front drum
advancing support area. Large
mining is in (DSFD) and dust source of back drum
coal shearer exists and the space
progress (DSBD)
structure changes complicatedly.
The hydraulic support approaches
the non-mining coal wall and This area does not include any dust
The support is not keeps consistency with the source, but it is directly connected to
Non-mining advanced and coal hydraulic supports in mining 60 the dust generated from the front drum
area mining is not in area， Both of them lag behind and is affected by multiple dust
progress other hydraulic supports in sources.
advancing support area. The
spacel structure is singular.

Table 2
Proportional statistics of mesh quality.
Quality range Elements Percentage（%） Quality range Elements Percentage（%）
0.00-0.05 0 0 0.50-0.55 43325 5.716
0.05-0.10 0 0 0.55-0.60 45092 5.949
0.10-0.15 0 0 0.60-0.65 49718 6.559
0.15-0.20 0 0 0.65-0.70 52715 6.955
0.20-0.25 57 0.008 0.70-0.75 56779 7.491
0.25-0.30 500 0.066 0.75-0.80 59734 7.881
0.30-0.35 2156 0.284 0.80-0.85 62351 8.226
0.35-0.40 9388 1.239 0.85-0.90 66311 8.749
0.40-0.45 28475 3.757 0.90-0.95 222678 29.378
0.45-0.50 45687 6.028 0.95-1.00 12999 1.715

Table 3
Main simulation parameters setting of different respirable dust f sources.
Main parameters DSFD/DSBD DSAS DSIAC
Rang of particle size/（µm） 0.29~7.07/0.45~7.07 0.23~7.07 0.11~7.07
Median diameter/（µm） 3.44/4.27 2.12 2.95
Mass flow rate/（kg/s） 0.018/0.007 0.0095 0.0008
Dispersion coefficient 3.38 3.32 3.02

2
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Table 4
Average air velocity at each section in non-advancing support area.
v0/(m/s The distance from measuring points section to the advancing support procedure section/m
) 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 v
0.4 0.5 0.6 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8
0.5
5 7 1 8 4 3 3 3 3 4 3 3 4 4 7 9 4
0.8 0.9 1.0 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.3
1 1.3 1.3 1.3
6 8 4 8 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 8 9 2
1.2 1.3 1.4 1.8 1.7 1.7 1.7 1.7 1.7 1.7 1.7 1.7 1.8 1.8 1.8
1.5 1.8 1.8
8 9 8 9 7 8 7 8 9 7 7 9 9 8 0
1.9 2.3 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.4 2.4 2.2
2 1.7 1.8
1 9 8 5 6 5 6 7 4 5 8 9 2 1 9
2.1 2.2 2.3 2.7 2.7 2.7 2.7 2.7 2.7 2.7 2.7 2.7 2.7 2.9 2.9 2.7
2.5 2.9
2 1 4 7 3 3 2 3 4 2 3 5 7 3 2 7
2.5 2.6 2.7 3.2 3.2 3.2 3.1 3.2 3.2 3.1 3.2 3.2 3.2 3.4 3.4 3.2
3 3.4
5 3 8 6 3 1 9 2 3 9 2 4 6 5 3 6
2.9 3.0 3.9 3.7 3.6 3.6 3.7 3.7 4.0 3.9 3.7
3.5 3.2 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.7
5 5 2 4 8 7 3 8 4 6 6
3.4 3.6 4.4 4.2 4.1 4.1 4.1 4.1 4.1 4.1 4.1 4.2 4.2 4.5 4.4 4.2
4 3.4
6 3 4 3 9 9 4 8 9 4 7 3 7 3 7 4

Table 5
Average respirable dust concentration at each section in non-advancing support area.
The distance from measuring point to the advancing support procedure section/m
v0/(m/s)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 c
0.5 641.49 1383.99 1428.41 2096.71 1933.18 1919.4 1929.22 1875.46 1899.51 1926.23 1888.94 1866.86 1895.99 1957.79 1973.86 1774.47
1211.4
1 358.85 931.64 884.47 1385.16 1248.35 1176.42 1154.12 1178.01 1159.3 1147.62 1149.73 1159.98 1180.53 1249.47 1105.00
1
1.5 262.71 752.77 664.25 1049.26 952.61 925.37 911.88 873.28 882.65 850.31 826.53 838.18 850.06 862.1 911.72 827.58
2 174.28 660.17 536.91 879.65 713.6 769.39 728.86 689.53 700.24 669.39 647.17 660.13 672.97 671.68 713.41 659.16
2.5 208.52 589.63 459.6 756.75 615.54 619.94 637.68 599.89 582.25 554.89 548.98 538.66 542.47 547.26 581.44 558.90
3 266.43 544.1 399.98 651.29 510.85 521.84 521.68 501.54 496.57 477.99 473.55 458.59 463.15 470.24 492.6 483.36
3.5 192.33 509.33 360.17 560.39 444.98 440.28 465.07 434.81 444.09 414.44 397.77 410.41 408.47 397.08 425.14 420.32
4 206.02 463.98 325.57 502.79 388.66 399.24 415.39 387.07 341.19 385.6 356.59 365.29 356.74 350.01 375.54 374.65