Design and application of a dust suppression technology of the forcing air curtain in fully mechanized rock tunnelling faces

To effectively reduce high dust concentrations and keep clean air in fully mechanized rock tunnelling faces in coal mine, this study carried out a research of dust suppression technology of the forcing air curtain. First, the mechanism of dust diffusion controlled by the forcing air curtain was introduced in this study. Then, numerical simulations of the formation of the forcing air curtain as well as the influence for dust diffusion under the different distance between forcing air duct outlet and heading end were carried out. Moreover, a dust suppression technology of the forcing air curtain was designed and tested in a fully mechanized rock tunnelling face of southern return air tunnel which was located in the Tangkou coal mine of China. It shows that the numerical simulation results were in good agreement with the in situ tests. The average removal rate of total and respirable dust could reach up to 95.1% and 96.1%, respectively, at manned working areas in the tunnel. Research results show that the dust suppression technology of the forcing air curtain is an effective method of dust control in fully mechanized rock tunnelling faces.