Investigation on the Effect of Water Pressure on Spray Performance for Removal of Respirable Dust

Details

• Personal Author:
  Beck T ; Jiang H ; Klima S ; Zheng Y
• Description:
  Dust control challenges exist in numerous mining applications and is especially prevalent in confined production spaces like mining faces. Water sprays are the most economical and technically feasible means of reducing dust concentrations in a wide range of applications. This study investigated the respirable dust knockdown performance and submicron particle suppression behavior for a typical mining spray nozzle operating at pressures ranging from 100 to 800 psi. A confined chamber dust removal evaluation approach and an optical particle counter were used for this study. For respirable dust knockdown, high spray pressures were more effective in lowering dust concentrations. However, submicron-sized particles are difficult to remove; at 100-psi water pressure, the knockdown fraction for submicron particles remained at only 40 % at the end of a 1-hr test. The lowest suppression effective size boundary was identified from 0.465 to 0.897 µm under a tested pressure range. Resuspension of submicron material was observed at all water pressure levels after the start of the spray operation. The resuspended submicron dust remained airborne for different durations under different spray pressures. Overall, results show a low capture efficiency and a high resuspension possibility for micron- or nano-scale particles under testing conditions. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aerosols Air Pollutants, Occupational Dust Mining Occupational Health Safety Ventilation
• Keywords:
  Airborne Dusts Dust Control Equipment Mining Industry Respirable Dust Water Sprays
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• ISBN:
  9781032551463
• Publisher:
  CRC Press
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  PMRD - Pittsburgh Mining Research Division
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  247-255
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20069423
• Citation:
  Underground Ventilation: Proceedings of the 19th North American Mine Ventilation Symposium (NAMVS 2023), June 17-22, 2023, Rapid City, South Dakota. Tukkaraja P ed. London: CRC Press, 2023 Sep; :247-255
• Editor(s):
  Tukkaraja P
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2023
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Underground Ventilation: Proceedings of the 19th North American Mine Ventilation Symposium (NAMVS 2023), June 17-22, 2023, Rapid City, South Dakota
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:91bd6d59869a972f139484e8571993eeeee15572765129bffbbf1d101a46df97937379ac51d15143316346be5142a3f259b4fe140e11825c6a6078159ffefb86
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/215645/cdc_215645_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.09 MB ]