Author(s)

J. T. Alvarez, I. D. Alvarez, S. T. Lougedo & B. G. Hevia

Abstract

In the framework of the Research Project CTM2005-00187/TECNO, \“Prediction models and prevention systems in the particle atmospheric contamination in an industrial environment” of the Spanish National R+D Plan of the Ministry of Education and Science, 2004-2007 period, a CFD model to simulate the dispersion of the dust generated in blasts located in limestone quarries has been developed. This is a complex phenomenon that is being studied through the use of several digital video recordings of blasts and the dust concentration field data measured by light scattering instruments, as well as the subsequent simulation of the dispersion of the dust clouds using Multiphase Computational Fluid Dynamics. After several tests with multiphase methods, both Eulerian and Lagrangian, finally the latter was used due to its ease in implementing calculations of discrete phases composed by multisized particles with affordable memory requirements. Keywords: Bench Blasting, dust dispersion modelling, CFD, Discrete Lagrangian methods. 1 Introduction This paper explains the simulations done to model the dust dispersion generated in a production blast located in a medium sized limestone quarry, ranging around 1Mt/year, exploited through drill and blast method. Limestone is a key natural resource, base of multiple materials used in Civil Works and main raw material of the cement. In order to achieve this production level there are needed at least two blasts per week, blasts that generate several possible environmental risks as the aerial

Keywords

Bench Blasting, dust dispersion modelling, CFD, Discrete Lagrangian methods.