Collaborative regulation of a dust control and two–stage dust collection system for different cutting zones

Abstract

With the advancement of full-face rapid excavation technology in coal mine roadways, dust generation has increased sharply, intensifying explosion risks and occupational health hazards. Conventional ventilation-volume control cannot meet the requirements of precise dust control under different cutting zones. To address this, a dust control and two-stage dust collection collaborative regulation system was developed, and differentiated collaborative regulation strategies were proposed for different cutting zones. The system integrates airflow regulation, first-stage near-source dust collection, and second-stage residual dust interception. Taking a fully mechanized excavation face in a northern Shaanxi coal mine as the case study, an airflow-dust coupled numerical model was established using the Euler–Lagrange approach and the Realizable k–ε turbulence model, and validated using field measurements. Based on simulated dust concentration distributions under different regulation parameters, a bi-objective optimization model was constructed using the response surface method, with dust concentration at the driver's position and average dust concentration in the breathing zone on the return-air side as the objective functions. The model was solved with the NSGA-II algorithm to obtain optimized collaborative regulation strategies. An experimental platform for the system was designed to verify model accuracy and dust reduction performance. The maximum relative errors of dust concentrations at the driver's position and in the breathing zone on the return-air side were 8.15% and 9.04%, respectively. After applying the optimized regulation strategies, the average dust concentration at the driver's position decreased by 59.74%, and that in the breathing zone on the return-air side decreased by 61.45%.