A new criterion to design reactive coal stockpiles

This paper proposes a new criterion to design the self-heating coal stockpiles. The generated heat can be removed if air is blown to the self-heating stockpile. At the same time, introducing more air to the system boosts the aforementioned chemical reactions. Hence, there is a tradeoff between the two opposing effects. Monitoring such a tradeoff, which pinpoints both qualitatively and quantitatively the safe characteristics (geometry, porosity, and permeability) of a stockpile, can be referred to as a design criterion to be implemented in industry. In order to validate the application of the newly-proposed criterion, two independent numerical solvers are used being a FORTRAN code and the commercially available software CFD-ACE. Different key parameters including approaching wind speed, porosity, and permeability are examined. Finally, application of energy flux vectors for convection visualization is also illustrated for a more comprehensive analysis of the problem.