Page 99 - Advances In Productive, Safe, and Responsible Coal Mining

Mine ventilation networks 6

optimized for safety and
productivity

J€ urgen F. Brune
Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA

6.1 Introduction

The purpose of mine ventilation is to provide sufficient quantities of fresh air to all
miners and to mining equipment and processes that require fresh air, including the
operation of diesel or other equipment with internal combustion engines. Further, ven-
tilation must dilute and render harmless any toxic, explosive, asphyxiating, radioac-
tive, or otherwise harmful gases and dusts.
A mine ventilation network is similar to a network of pipelines or electrical con-
nections that reaches every working area of the mine and provides a specific amount of
air flow to each workplace. In order to distribute appropriate amounts of fresh air to
each workplace and to exhaust used air back to the mine portal or air shaft, various
ventilation controls are used, including:
Mechanical mine fans that generate fresh air flow for the entire mine (main fan) or a large
l
area of it (bleeder fan). In most cases, exhausting fans are used because they are usually sim-
pler to install. It is common for large mines to have more than one main fan or installations of
multiple fans in parallel.
Regulators that restrict and control the amount of air fed to specific areas of the mine.
l
Stoppings that prevent air flow through certain mine workings.
l
l Curtains—both line curtain and pull-through curtain.
l Seals that permanently block ventilation air from entering mined-out areas where it is no
longer needed, thus stopping ventilation in those areas.
l Auxiliary fans that increase air flow in face areas, dead-end drifts, or other areas that require
increased ventilation. In underground coal or gassy noncoal mines, the use of auxiliary fans
is restricted to the immediate face areas of continuous miner development, while in non-
gassy, metal and nonmetal mines, auxiliary fans are widely used to ventilate dead-ended
drifts.
l Underground booster fans may be used in nongassy, metal and nonmetal mines to improve
air flow quantities in larger areas of the mine where the main mine fan no longer produces
sufficient ventilation.
Some auxiliary fans and regulators may be controlled remotely or even automatically
controlled. This is often done in nongassy, metal and nonmetal mines that employ con-
trol systems to provide the required local and face ventilation on-demand (VOD).

Advances in Productive, Safe, and Responsible Coal Mining. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-101288-8.00005-5
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