The issue of coal spontaneous combustion greatly threatens the production
safety of coal mining, storage, and transportation. It is significant to
study oxygen adsorption to understand the mechanism of coal spontaneous
combustion. In this paper, based on the fractal dimension of coal and the
self-similar fractal geometry, the internal pore structure of coal is
modeled. Then, the lattice Boltzmann method is employed to conduct the
numerical simulation of oxygen adsorption in coal. Compared with the
existing experimental data and numerical simulation, the lattice Boltzmann
method is verified to be correct. The numerical results indicate that in the
process of oxygen adsorption in coal, the preferential flow occurs when the
large pores connect to the channel. In the meantime, the large diffusion
coefficient leads to an early time for adsorption equilibrium. The oxygen
adsorption increases with an increased adsorption rate constant. Pore
structure plays a significant role in the adsorption behavior of oxygen in
coal. The results can provide theoretical support for reducing coal
spontaneous combustion and ensuring coal mine safety in production.