Mining Publication: Mine Face Ventilation: A Comparison of CFD Results Against Benchmark Experiments for the CFD Code Validation

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a continually developing numerical technique by which complex fluid-flow problems can be solved on computers. To be able to transfer CFD expertise to analyze and design a face-ventilation system, a comprehensive validation study of current CFD tools against mining-related benchmark experiments is required. In the last four years, such studies, funded by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) under Grant #R01 CCR415822, were conducted in the Department of Mining Engineering at the University of Kentucky. A wide array of ventilation schemes and mining configurations were considered. Recently, an additional study was performed in cooperation with the NIOSH Pittsburgh Research Laboratory. This study was dedicated to the methane behavior in the empty (containing no equipment) face area with a blowing curtain and a 10.7-m (35-ft) setback. In this paper, the authors present and discuss the computer-simulation data and compare them with data collected during the laboratory studies at the NIOSH lab.