Modified explosive diagram for determining gas-mixture explosibility

Abstract

Determination of mine gas explosibility is definitely a significant work for mine safety especially when any mine rescue strategies are under planning or implementing. In detail, its importance can be well understood by the following two aspects: First, if a coal mine's production is under the normal conditions, the underground mine atmosphere must be monitored as a timely matter and its explosibility should also be determined shortly due to the continuous emission of methane or other combustible gases. Thus, the critical time which means a time period that combustible gases could build up to reach the lower flammable limit and then pass the upper flammable limit can be effectively watched and controlled. Second, when facing a mine rescue work or mitigating a hazard of mine accidents (gas explosion, coal fire, etc.), the explosibility determination is also very critical for miners' lives. In this paper, a widely used mine gas explosibility determination method, the Coward diagram, is going to be modified to improve its accuracy. The improvements made in this research effort include: (1) expanding the original Coward diagram; (2) correcting flammable limits; (3) redefining the nose limit for each combustible gas; (4) developing an equation to predict the excess amount of inert gas for individual combustible gas. Finally, the flowchart of the modified Coward explosibility diagram method is listed. By a cross-verification study, it shows that the modified Coward method has better accuracy and reliability and could be applied in practices. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.