Law of respirable dust pollution induced by cutting-advancing support in a fully mechanized mining face and spatial stereoscopic dust control and removal technology

To reduce the impact of high-concentration RD on the physical and mental health of miners, numerical simulations were conducted on the coupling movement law of airflow-RD under the condition of cutting-advancing support dust sources and the distribution characteristics of the spray field in the mining face based on the computational fluid dynamics theory. Besides, a spatial stereoscopic dust control and removal technology for fully mechanized mining faces were proposed according to the structural characteristics of the shearer and hydraulic supports. The results show that the dust generated by advancing support constantly settles in the process of airflow movement and superimposes with the cutting-induced dust around the front drum to form a high-concentration (the highest concentration exceeding 1000 mg/m3) RD mass (length about 18 m, width about 2.1 m and height about 1.8 m). The droplets sprayed by the novel high-efficiency atomization equipment can cover the area with high concentration of RD, and the concentration of spray droplets is much higher than that of RD, which can effectively realize dust control. After the application of the spatial stereoscopic dust control and removal technology, the average removal rates of TD, RD and coal dust reach 92.9%, 91.7% and 92.3%, respectively. The application of this technology can effectively improve the mining face environment, reduce the incidence of safety accidents and pneumoconiosis and ensure the safety production of coal enterprises and the occupational health of miners.