Flame and temperature wave propagation characteristic of methane‐air mixture in mine tunnels

Abstract

Purpose

Explosions are the main type of accident causing casualties in underground coal mines. Little attention has been devoted to investigating the flame propagations for methane‐air explosion in a tunnel with full scale. This paper seeks to address this topic.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the numerical simulation and the analysis, the propagation rule of flame and temperature waves inside and outside the space occupied by methane/air mixture at the various concentrations in a tunnel were obtained in this work.

Findings

The original interface of methane‐air mixture and air moves forward in the explosion and the original mixture area extends. For the methane‐air mixture with rich fuel concentration, the flame speed increases with distance within a range beyond the original position of the interface between the mixture and air. The flame speed reaches maximum value outside the original area of methane‐air mixture with rich fuel concentration.

Originality/value

Based on the numerical simulation and the analysis, the propagation rule of flame and temperature wave inside and outside the space occupied by methane/air mixture at the various concentrations in a tunnel were obtained.

Citation

Zhang, Q. and Pang, L. (2013), "Flame and temperature wave propagation characteristic of methane‐air mixture in mine tunnels", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 23 No. 5, pp. 885-898. https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-10-2011-0195