Gas explosions presented a serious safety threat in the mining industry worldwide. Many coal miners had been
killed due to explosions in mining. The malfunction of a ventilation systemcaused by a gas explosionwas the primary
reason for casualties in coal mines. In this study, two models were built to simulate ventilation systems in
which gas explosions often occur. The models consisted of a pipe incorporating weak panels. Using each model,
the propagation of the overpressure shockwave and the distribution on the ventilation systemwere verified. According
to the characteristics of multiple ventilation facilities in a local ventilation system, the combined effects of
bends and bifurcations and the destruction of ventilation facilities in the local networkmodel due to an overpressurewavewere
analyzed. By analyzing the distribution of the methane/air mixture explosion overpressure wave
in the pipe models, the effect of a weak panel on the explosion shock wave and the degree of explosion damage
were characterized by the statistical results from the sizes of the fragments. The explosion wave peak overpressure
in the forward direction was higher than the peak overpressure in the elbowbend direction. After explosion,
the production gas was immediately extracted and the composition was analyzed. The destruction order for
different ventilation facilities in the local ventilation system was determined according to the pipe model
experimental results. The disaster of gas explosion for ventilation network and workers was analyzed, and the
spare door was designed to recover the ventilation system after gas explosion.