Comparative analysis of different CFD turbulence models for a diesel pool combustion event in an underground mine: a case study

Underground mine fires are dangerous, consume resources, and emit pollutants. Therefore, acquiring in-mine data for fire research is hazardous and expensive due to unsteady temperature changes and toxic gas emissions. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models are often developed to mimic airflows and combustion-associated heat transfer. However, research on the performance evaluation of the CFD turbulence models to mimic fire events is limited. This paper summarises the modelling results for a diesel pool fire event in an experimental underground mine that uses an exhaust ventilation system. A fire dynamics simulator (FDS) model was developed to show the spatio-temporal temperature evolution. Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes and large eddy simulation (LES) models were developed using ANSYS Fluent to model species transportation in the transient-state combustion event. LES models showed the closest agreement with the experiments but required the most computing resources. Similar exercises will assist the mine operators in emergency preparedness and in training their safety teams.