Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Modeling of Free-Surfaces and Particle Capture in a Vortecone Scrubber System Scaled for Installation on Continuous Miners

Details

• Personal Author:
  Kumar AR ; Schafrik S ; Velasquez OA ; Wedding WC
• Description:
  Continuous miners are often equipped with a flooded-bed dust scrubber to clean the air from close to an active underground coal mining face. However, its impingement screen is prone to clogging due to an accumulation of dust, thereby lowering the scrubber's efficiency and potentially exposing the mine workers to higher levels of dust. Fans can compensate for the increased resistance by varying their operating parameters, but the scrubber screen needs significant maintenance which leads to downtime. The authors have proposed a suitably sized Vortecone as an alternative to the conventional flooded-bed dust scrubber system. Water is used as the filter medium, which is replaced and recycled continuously. Preliminary CFD investigations of Vortecone scrubbers have indicated higher cleaning efficacies, especially in the respirable range. This paper presents the results including the flow characteristics and capture efficacies of a full-scale Vortecone. Multi-phase flows, including free-surface modeling and particle tracking methods, have been adopted. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Dust Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Computational Fluid Dynamics Continuous Mining Dust Control Filters Free-surface Modeling Particle Tracking Respirable Dust Scrubbers Scrubbing Systems Vortecone
• Publisher:
  Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc.
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Contract
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  Kentucky ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20068871
• Citation:
  2018 SME Annual Meeting, February 25-28, 2018, Minneapolis, Minnesota, preprint 18-102. Englewood, CO: Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc., 2018 Feb; :1-5
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2018
• Performing Organization:
  University of Kentucky
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20140901
• Source Full Name:
  2018 SME Annual Meeting, February 25-28, 2018, Minneapolis, Minnesota, preprint 18-102
• End Date:
  20190831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:49ad904d04dd2f6e1c77e2134a54e1aff57e0f1f7f13e384c18405770321a0ff9a47b26a27fd0045ed252d8299cb27abf43c96fce634f44eb085ef25bd8c5109
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/207438/cdc_207438_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 517.54 KB ]