Flow redistribution and dust transport characteristics in metal mine Roadways under Variable-Aperture damper regulation: a CFD study and intelligent regulation framework

This study investigates how a variable-aperture damper modifies turbulent transport characteristics and dust dispersion in metal-mine roadways using experimental dust characterization and Eulerian–Lagrangian CFD with the standard k–ε model. The polydisperse dust (0.317–399 μm) followed the Rosin–Rammler distribution and contained 22.92% respirable particles and 13.501% silica, with strong hydrophilicity (contact angle: 25.72°). Simulations at damper openings of 1.0 L, 0.75 L, 0.50 L, and 0.25 L (L = 2.0 m) showed that aperture reduction suppressed throughflow, extended downstream recirculation from 5.0 to 10.4 m, and redistributed airflow between the main and working roadways. Smaller apertures nonlinearly enhanced dust dispersion and evacuation by increasing turbulent kinetic energy while reducing its dissipation, thereby raising turbulent viscosity, strengthening mixing and advection, lowering dust concentration, and shortening evacuation time. Field measurements under the fully open damper condition showed reasonable agreement with the corresponding CFD predictions, with mean relative errors of 7.15% for air velocity and 8.53% for dust concentration. Based on the obtained airflow–dust response relationship, an IoT-based damper regulation framework is proposed to provide a potential strategy for intelligent ventilation management.