Basic characteristics of mine dust suppression foam and the quantitative evaluation method of its performance

The priority direction of mine dust control is to suppress dust generation and flying at the source. Foam, a gas-liquid two-phase medium, has some unique advantages of large dust covering area, strong adhesion ability and fast wetting of dust. It is an efficient way of dust suppression, especially for respiratory dust. However, there is limited research on the morphology and properties of dust suppression foam in the past, resulting in a certain blindness in the preparation and utilization of dust suppression foam. And there is a problem of a large amount of spray foam in exchange for higher dust suppression efficiency, which restricts the low-cost application of this technology in mines. Therefore, in this study, a theoretical derivation was combined with experimental research and quantitative analysis to study the process and law of dust suppression foam drain, the micromorphology of dust suppression foam, the performance influence mechanism and the quantitative evaluation method. These results show that the drain factor w is related to the height of the foam column and the liquid of foam in the foaming process. The higher height of the dust suppression foam and the greater liquid content, the value of the discharge factor w will be lower. The predicted value of w and the theoretical discharge curve calculated by the drainage model show a high degree of consistency with the experimental results, which verifies the accuracy of the theoretical model. The results show foam size distribution, average diameter with the concentration of foaming agent changes. At a low concentration (1%), the number of foam decreases and large particle size bubbles increase. The addition of low-concentration (<0.3%) polymer to the foaming agent has no obvious effect on the wetting angle of coal dust, but the contact angle increases when enlarging the concentration of polymer. In terms of foaming performance and foam stability performance, the production efficiency and stability of dust suppression foam can be improved after the addition of 0.1% polymer. Based on the analysis of the whole process from the generation of dust suppression foam to its action on the dust cutting source, the indicators for evaluating the foam performance are proposed, and the quantitative evaluation criteria and four grades of dust suppression foam performance are given

Improvement of Foaming Ability of Surfactant Solutions by Water-Soluble Polymers: Experiment and Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Aqueous foam is widely used in fire extinguishing and dust suppression technologies. Improving the foaming ability is the key to reducing the added concentration of foaming agents as well as the economic cost. In this work, the effect of a water-soluble polymer (polyvinyl alcohol, PVA) on the foaming ability of anionic surfactant (sodium dodecyl ether sulfate, SDES) was studied by an experiment and molecular dynamics simulation. The experimental results showed that PVA greatly improves the foaming ability of SDES solutions when the surfactant concentration is less than 0.1%, which is attributed to the fact that the polymer can enhance the stability of bubble films and reduce the bubble rupture rate during the foam generation process. The simulation results indicate that PVA can enhance the hydration of surfactant head groups and contribute to the formation of a three-dimensional hydrogen bond network between surfactants, polymers, and water molecules, thus greatly improving the stability of bubble liquid films. The above results suggest that water-soluble polymers can be used to improve the foaming ability of surfactant solutions by enhancing the bubble film stability, which is beneficial as it reduces the added concentration of foaming agents in aqueous foam applications