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Methane-air explosions are the most fatal accidents in underground coalmines. To understand its destruction, a worst-case full-scale methane-air explosion at a longwall coalface was simulated and analyzed based on accident investigations. It was found the flame covers a short length with an expansion ratio of about 6.67 at the longwall coalface, and crosscuts reduce the ratio to 3.67. Bifurcation reduces the peak overpressure by 25%–32% and the peak velocity of blast waves by 18.5%–23.5%. Corners have a significant effect on mitigating the peak overpressure but have a negligible impact on the blast velocity. In a long straight tunnel, the peak overpressure and blast velocity decay slowly and linearly by just 18.5% and 17.3%. A high-speed blast wave with debris and toxic and anoxic airflows at a velocity higher than 100 m/s were obtained from the accident investigations and in most of the simulation domain, it is the biggest challenge to evacuation and the most destructive force at the far-field disaster areas of methane-air explosions in underground coalmines. Thus, crosscuts, corners and blast velocity retarding methods should be more adopted to mitigate explosions and improve the rescue and evacuation safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the overpressure of methane-air explosions in straight large-scale tunnels, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code of Flame Accelerator Simulator (FLACS) was used and validated against experiments conducted at three different scales, and the effects of the volume concentration of methane in air, the blockage ratio (BR), the tunnel length, and the cross-section were studied. When analysed using the GaussAmp mathematical model, the maximum peak overpressure appears at a volume concentration of 10.30 % of methane in air. Blockage ratios (BR) of 0.15 and 0.3 resulted in the combustion of methane-air mixtures with the volume concentration of 6.5 % and 14.0 % of methane in air, producing a fatal overpressure of 21 kPa. When the BR increases up to 0.75, both the lean and rich mixtures cause a peak overpressure of over 60 kPa. Combustion of the same methane-air mixture produces the same overpressure, which decays approximately linearly at the same slope owing to a smooth wall roughness before travelling near the outlet, independent of the specific tunnel length. A method to characterise the cross-sections was proposed, and the maximum peak overpressure of different lengths of methane-air mixtures in different cross-sectional tunnels was found, presenting various regimes from a hump shape to a wave-like uplift and bowl shape. The cross-section parameters determine the degree of confinement and further control the maximum peak overpressure in the modelled tunnels. An exponential asymptotic model can be used to conveniently obtain the maximum peak overpressure. These phenomena indicate that approximately square-shaped cross-sections should be selected to avoid an extremely high overpressure in large-scale tunnels with the potentially significant accumulation of methane-air mixtures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• FLACS code was verified well predict the overpressure and flame coverage. • The maximum pressures were obtained as about 150–1400 kPa. • Congestion affects the competing of confinement and flammable gas volume. To investigate the characteristics of methane-air explosions in large-scale tunnels with different structures, the CFD code for gas explosion modelling of FLACS was validated and used to model the explosions in tunnelling faces, coalfaces and crosscuts, where explosions mostly occurred in coalmines. The maximum overpressures were obtained as about 150–1400 kPa but varied for places with different cross-sections. The confinement degree and combustible mixture volume compete for controlling the overpressures, the space congestion degree influences the competition. For the tunnelling faces and crosscuts with low congestions, the increase of confinement degree caused by reducing cross-sections takes the dominant effect, which makes the overpressure in 3 m × 2 m cross-section tunnels higher. However, the 6 m × 4 m coalface produces the largest overpressure as the highly congested coalface strengthens the effect of increasing the mixture volume on pressure rise. Since the pressure reflection results from space constraints, a higher confinement degree causes a greater reflection. In crosscuts with both ends closed, the delayed combustion of the unburnt rich mixture after the seal's failure generates a high pressure than assumed. Because of containing the same volume combustible mixtures in the crosscut modelling with the same cross-section, little difference exists in the overpressure regardless of sealing conditions. The flame is more inclined to propagate towards free spaces, and the flame of a larger volume combustible mixture fills a longer tunnel more comprehensively. In straight tunnelling faces, the flame length can be calculated as the product of the equivalent side length of the cross-section and its corresponding simulated constant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]