Determination and Fire Analysis of Gob Characteristics Using CFD

Abstract

A laboratory-scale analysis using coal from an underground mine was carried out, emulating a mixture from the gob area in an actual mine, consisting of waste, coal, and free space for the flow of air. Experimental tests and computational fluid dynamics modelling were done to define and verify the behavior of the collapsed region in a time-dependent analysis. In addition, the characteristics of coal were defined, regarding the self-combustion, combustion rate, and pollutants generated in each stage of the fire. The results achieved are useful for determining the behavior of the collapsed area in full-scale conditions and to provide valuable information to study different scenarios of a potential fire in a real sublevel coal mine regarding how the heat is spread in the gob and how pollutants are generated.

Keywords

• CFD
• FDS
• coal fire
• fire behavior
• coal seam