Effects of structural parameters of pressure-swirl nozzle on atomization and dust removal characteristics

To further improve the dust removal efficiency of water spray, the influence of key structure parameters of nozzle on atomization characteristic (droplet size, atomization angle, flow rate, effective spray distance, wind disturbance resistance) was studied. The results showed that the nozzle had good atomization performance when the outlet diameter was 1.5 mm. The internal structure of the nozzle had an obvious influence on the atomization characteristics. The shrinkage angle had a prominent effect on the droplet size and atomization angle. When the shrinkage angle was increased from 60 to 120°, the droplet size and atomization angle were improved by 29.2% and 45.5%, respectively, while the increased shrinkage angle from 120 to 150° only improved by 9.1% and 4.2%, respectively. In addition, the diameter of the center hole had a strong correlation with the effective spray distance. When the diameter of the center hole increased from 1 to 2 mm, the effective spray distance increased by 60.9% (to 7.4 m) at the pressure of 4 MPa, while the effective spray distance without change increased when the diameter of the center hole increased from 2 to 2.5 mm. It was determined that the nozzle with the outlet aperture of 1.5 mm, the shrinkage angle of 120°, and the diameter of the center hole of 2 mm had good atomization and dust control characteristics. Additionally, it was verified that the optimized nozzle had a substantial improvement in controlling respirable dust, and the dust removal efficiencies for PM2.5 and PM5 were increased by 14.29% and 16.52%, respectively, compared to the original nozzle. This study provided guidance for choosing the nozzle of hydraulic support to form the effective dust control spray.