Study on dust–gas coupling pollution law and selection of optimal purification distance of air duct during tunneling process

During the excavation of high gas mine, gas and dust often exist at the same time. In order to ensure that the gas concentration remains within a safe range and minimize the risk of workers’ pneumoconiosis, we simulated the interaction mechanism of airflow, gas, and dust, explored the pollution law of gas and dust, and obtained the optimal purification distance (L_p) by the CFD method. The reliability of the numerical simulation was verified by field measurements. Firstly, the properties of the gas and dust affected the structure of the airflow field. At the same time, the change in the airflow field affected the concentration distributions of the gas and dust. During the diffusion process, some high-risk regions in which the gas or dust concentrations exceeded 0.80% or 200 mg/m³, respectively, were discovered. Moreover, we have found that the airflow velocity in the top region of the tunnel and at the intersection corner between the cutting face and tunnel wall was the main factor affecting the purification effects. When L_p = 5–8 m, the gas concentration remained below 0.50%. When L_p = 6 m, the dust concentration reached a minimum of 287.5 mg/m³. Therefore, the optimal purification distance was determined to be 6 m; in which case, the gas and dust concentrations decreased by 32.84% and 47.02%, respectively.