Using high level roadway to control gas emission in a longwall mining face- numerical simulation study

With the increase of coal mining depth, the gas content in coal seams could also become larger and larger, which could suddenly cause an inrush of gas into the longwall mining face. It is very dangerous for miners' safety in the underground. The U-shaped ventilation pattern of longwall mining face that underground coal mines currently use is not enough to deliver sufficient air quantities to dilute gases in mining faces, which could result in the gas concentration over the required celling limit by government laws. Thus, the mine must stop production. In this paper, the high level roadway (HLR) is designed and the U + HLR new ventilation pattern is proposed to control gas emission in a longwall mining face. Using computational fluid dynamics simulation (CFD) software, the flow field and gas transportation in the mine gob are studied. The optimized ventilation parameters are summarized. It is found that the best vertical distance of the HLR is 35 m over the coal seam and the horizontal distance is 25 m from the air return roadway. It is recommended that the negative suction pressure design of the high level roadway should be ranged from 9000 Pa to 10000 Pa. Based on the study outcomes, the gas emission could be well controlled in mining faces and avoid any gas disaster accidents.