Study on CO dispersion characteristics and isolation door control technology of refuge chamber in coal mine

To investigate the dispersion process of the underground toxic gas carbon monoxide (CO) into the refuge chamber during a mine disaster and enhance the survival rate of trapped miners, a simplified model of an underground refuge chamber and the main roadway was constructed. The impact of temperature and pressurized air volume on CO dispersion into the refuge chamber has been examined through both analog experiments and numerical simulations, and the reliability of the simulation results was verified. The results indicate that CO dispersion into the refuge chamber through the top of the protective isolation door occurs when the temperature in the refuge chamber is lower than that of the toxic gas. When the temperature of the toxic gas is higher, it tends to enter the refuge chamber through the bottom of the protective isolation door. The evolution of CO concentration in the transition chamber can be divided toxic survival chamber can be categorized into a sudden decline stage and a stable stage. And a flexible isolation door designed to control the entry of toxic gases into the refuge chamber was implemented, and its impact on CO dispersion has been compared and analyzed. When the temperature of the main roadway is 50 °C and the temperature of the refuge chamber is 20 °C, the required pressurized air volume to maintain the CO concentration within the safe threshold (24 ppm) is reduced to 69.6% of that needed without the isolation door, thereby significantly reducing the infiltration of harmful gases from the main roadway into the refuge chamber.