Modeling of Methane and Air Velocity Behavior in an Auxiliary Ventilated Coal Heading

It is commonly known that the cause of serious accidents in underground coal mining is methane. Thus, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) becomes a useful tool to simulate methane dispersion and to evaluate the performance of the ventilation system in order to prevent mine accidents related to methane. In this study, numerical and experimental studies of the methane concentration and air velocity behaviour were carried out. The experiment was conducted in an auxiliary ventilated coal heading in Turkish Hard Coal Enterprises (TT K), which is the most predominant coal producer in Turkey. The simulations were modeled using Fluent-Ansys v.12. Significant correlations were found when experimental values and modeling results were compared with statistical analysis. The CFD modeling of the methane and air velocity in the headings especially uses in auxiliary ventilation systems of places where it is hard to measure or when the measurements made are inadequate.