Failure Mode Analysis and Dynamic Response of a Coal Mine Refuge Chamber with a Gas Explosion

A gas and coal dust explosion is potential hazard in majority coal mines. A coal mine mobile refuge chamber is a new class of device for miners those who are unable to escape after an accident which can provide basic survival conditions. In this paper, in order to study the propagation law of an underground methane/air mixture explosive wave, and check the failure mode of a coal mine mobile refuge chamber, a full-sized underground tunnel model and a refuge chamber model have been established in ANSYS/LS-DYNA (LSTC, R7.0.0, Livermore, CA, USA, 2014). The simulation results show that the reflected wave pressure on the front surface of the refuge chamber was about twice as high than the incident wave. The pressure on various locations of the chamber was also analyzed. When the peak pressure of the explosive shockwave reached 0.64 MPa, the maximum displacement and stress occur at the center of the front door and the joint of stiffeners and the front plate, respectively. Most parts of the coal mine mobile refuge chamber were in a plastic failure state and the refuge chamber could be defined as damaged. The front door, the front plate, the connecting flange, and the stiffeners on each side were the primary key components. In the end, suggestions were proposed for the refuge chamber.