Abstract
Much dust is generated in underground coal mining processes, posing threats to workers’ health and safety production. Dust enters the human body mainly through inhalation, primarily determined by the dust concentration around workers. In this study, the airflow field and dust distribution in the tunnel are simulated with FLUENT software. The breathing zone for a worker was defined to clarify the extent of external dust distribution influencing dust inhalation. The effects of human respiration, dust production rates, air supply velocities, and workers’ positions on dust concentration in the breathing zone were investigated. The results show that there is upward airflow around the worker standing in the center of the air circulation. Human breath barely influences the airflow distribution and respirable dust concentrations in the breathing zone. Reducing the dust production rate in the tunnel can decrease the respirable dust concentration in the breathing zone by almost the same proportion. While increasing the air supply velocity by 50% would reduce only 20% of dust in the breathing zone. The dust concentrations vary along the roadway, in which the low concentration zone is located in the middle, more than 1.0 m away from the dust-producing surface and the wind surface. The research contributes to reducing workers’ dust exposure with suggestions regarding ventilation optimization and working position selection.
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Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 52304266]; the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province [grant number BK20221143]; the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [grant number 2021QN1087]; and the Double-Innovation Doctor Foundation of Jiangsu Province [grant number JSSCBS20211202].
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All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Rongting Huang, Wanyi Chen, Yichun Tao, Shilong Yuan, Fan Geng, and Shihang Li. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Rongting Huang and Wanyi Chen. The corresponding author is Rongting Huang. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Huang, R., Chen, W., Tao, Y. et al. Influence of environmental parameters on workers’ dust inhalation in underground mines. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 8963–8973 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-31800-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-31800-1