The construction of a tunnel is a very demanding discipline of civil engineering. With an average of 5200 km of newly built tunnels each year on over 2300 construction projects it is an important sector of the infrastructure. In addition to obvious hazards for the workers such as blasting work or construction machinery, mineral fine dust also poses a risk to workers’ health. Among these fine dusts, those containing quartz particles smaller than 4 μm are particularly dangerous, as they can enter the lungs and cause diseases such as silicosis or lung cancer.

The research project LUQUAS, which is a consortium of several Austrian companies and universities, is working on the design of a suitable system for mechanical dust suppression using a spray mist system, which uses water droplets to bind the dust particles in the air and therefore forces them to sediment more quickly to the ground. Since tests and measurements on active tunnel construction sites are very complex and difficult to implement, the effectiveness of the use of atomizing nozzles is to be determined by means of laboratory-scale tests and optimal operating parameters.

A dust dispersion unit, which can disperse a defined dust mass flow of the test dusts Carolith (0-0,2) and Sikron SF600 over a longer period, is placed at the front. This is intended to simulate the release of dust during tunnel blasting at the face. The spray mist is generated at a right angle to it using a nozzle spray stand which is operated at different pressures. The results demonstrate that the use of atomizing nozzles in areas with high dust concentrations can contribute to a reduction in airborne matter. The presentation of this topic at FILTECH 2026 will focus on the challenges and solutions for the representative experimental test setup.