Research on a new method of “blocking-sealing” dust control and removal in fully mechanized heading face

The fully mechanized heading face has the disadvantages of a large open space, difficult to seal, and low dust reduction efficiency. To overcome these issues, a new “blocking-sealing” method for cutting the produced dust was proposed in this study. The impact mechanism of ventilation parameters on dust pollution was analyzed using the CFD-DPM method. The results show that in the original state, the transverse offset airflow generated by the roller of the heading machine carries high-concentration dust into the sidewalk space, the length of the high-concentration dust area of more than 570 mg/m3 in the sidewalk space is about 16 m. After using the new method, the distribution of airflow mechanical energy between the sidewalk space and the bracket-coal wall space was redistributed. When the air suction volume was 600 m3/min, the high-concentration dust area basically disappeared. By increasing the air volume ratio to 1:1.5, the dust concentration in the original high-concentration dust area of the sidewalk space was basically lower than 172 mg/m3. When the side opening of the dust exhaust duct for suction (SO), the dust removal efficiency in the local area of the sidewalk reached 80.7%, which provides a new method for clean coal production.