Multiphase CFD Simulation of Coal Dust Dispersion and Explosion in a 20 L Explosion Chamber

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is one of the advanced numerical tools used to simulate multiphase fluid dynamics problems for various scientific applications worldwide. Many commercial and open-source CFD software are available for simulation, ranging from simpler to highly complex phenomena. This research paper has compared the simulation of coal dust dispersion in a 20 L explosion chamber using two established commercially available software, viz Ansys and Fluidyn. For this simulation, the laboratory experimental properties of the coal sample, i.e., Narsamunda coal mine, ECL was taken. The turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) and velocity vector are important parameters for optimum dispersion which is a required condition for an explosion phase. The simulation results of both the software are similar when compared with TKE and the velocity vector of coal dust particles for the dispersion phase. The explosion study was carried out in a 20 L explosion chamber with CFD software (Fluidyn), and the severity of explosion has been determined for the coal sample, i.e., Narsamunda coal mine, ECL.