Mine Fires and Explosions

Dear Colleagues,

Fire and explosion are the main types of disaster that occur in mines, including coal spontaneous combustion (internal fire), external fire, and gas (coal dust) explosion. Great progress has been made in coal spontaneous combustion prediction, fire-area detection, fire-control technology and materials, and standardization system construction. We now have a greater understanding of the disaster mechanism of explosion under the coexistence of gas, coal dust and fire, and the risk-assessment system and quantitative method of gas (coal dust) explosion. A lot of research work has been conducted in relation to the use of ventilation to prevent gas (coal dust) accumulation and overrun, which could effectively prevent such disasters. The major coal-producing countries, such as China, the USA and Australia, attached great importance to the research, development, and application of disaster emergency rescue technology and equipment in mines, and have made considerable progress in emergency communication, personnel positioning, remote detection in disaster areas, construction of escape routes, accident emergency and auxiliary decision-making, airflow regulation, and escape guidance after a disaster.

This Special Issue, “Mine Fires and Explosions”, aims to cover recent developments in occurrence mechanisms, new techniques and equipment, safety management and risk assessment, emergency rescue theories and technologies for the control of mine fires and explosions. Original research articles and reviews are welcome, and the submitted papers should clearly show novel contributions and innovative applications of how science can support any of the following fire-related topics (amongst others):

• Mechanisms of mine fires and explosions and behavior modeling;
• Application of new techniques and equipments for the control of mine fires and explosions;
• Application of new materials (fire prevention, explosion suppression or dustproof material);
• Numerical simulation of dust diffusion, gas migration or flame spread under coupling multi-physical fields;
• Space-time evolution and their destructive effects of mine fires and explosions;
• Closed-loop management model;
• Real path and coupling effects;
• Risk control with an accident chain;
• Risk assessment;
• Airflow regulation;
• Assessment of emergency response capability.  

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Haiyan Wang
Dr. Feng Li
Prof. Dr. Huiyong Niu
Dr. Minbo Zhang
Prof. Dr. Xuyao Qi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the Special Issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fire is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.