Report of Investigations 9480: Impact of Air Velocity on the Development and Detection of Small Coal Fires

Details

• Journal Article:
  Pittsburgh, PA: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, RI 9480
• Personal Author:
  Egan, Margaret R.
• Description:
  The U.S. Bureau of Mines conducted experiments in the intermediate-scale fire tunnel to assess the influence of air velocity on the gas production and smoke characteristics during smoldering and flaming combustion of Pittsburgh seam coal and its impact on the detection of the combustion products. On-line determinations of mass and number of smoke particles, light transmission, and various gas concentrations were made. From these experimental values, generation rates, heat-release rates, production constants, particle sizes, obscuration rates, and optical densities were calculated. Ventilation has a direct effect on fire detection and development. The results indicate that, in general, increased air velocity lengthened the onset of smoke and flaming ignition, increased the fire intensity, but decreased the gas and smoke concentrations. Increased air velocity also lengthened the response times of all the fire sensors tested. Rapid and reliable detector response at this most crucial state of fire development can increase the possibility that appropriate miner response (fire suppression tactics or evacuation) can be completed before toxic smoke spreads throughout the mine. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Coal Coal Mining Fires Mining Occupational Health Safety Ventilation
• Keywords:
  Fire-tests; Smoke; Combustion-products; Ventilation; Mine-safety; Mine-fires; Coal-mines; Air-infiltration; Mining-industry; Underground-mining; Ventilation-systems
• Source:
  Pittsburgh, PA: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, RI 9480, 1993 Jan; :1-16
• Series:
  NIOSH Numbered Publications   ; Mining Publications  
• Subseries:
  Report of Investigations
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  PRC - Pittsburgh Research Center
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  22 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:10004330
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB94-112364
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1993
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f6161c7a5521bb38005bdfe534d6ff767dd7936e04deb58d67669af649d64cafaf8c4d6c242da299478a3189a8a977531d61adc78edf4a02f021203a5c67e7ca
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/10158/cdc_10158_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 490.36 KB ]