Detectability of a self-illuminating lifeline for self-escape in smoke conditions of an underground mine

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Light Res Technol
• Personal Author:
  Martell, MJ ; Sammarco, JJ ; Macdonald, B ; Rubinstein, E
• Description:
  Lifelines are used to aid self-escape of underground miners, but they are difficult to find in low-visibility conditions of smoke, therefore a self-illuminating lifeline could facilitate miners in locating the lifeline. The detection distance, colour recognition, and miss rate for 10 subjects were determined for red-, green- and blue-lighted diffuse fibre-optic cables, used to create a lighted lifeline, and a traditional rope lifeline in a smoked-filled environment. The testing was conducted with and without a cap lamp. The use of a cap lamp resulted in all cases being undetected in 98.3% of trials. With the cap lamp off, there was no significant difference in the detection distance for blue- and green-lighted fibres; however, the miss rate for the green-lighted fibre was slightly higher. The red-lighted fibre was not detected in 93.3% of trials. The green- and blue-lighted fibres enabled the best visual performance, but subjects had difficulty correctly identifying the colour of the fibre. The lighted fibre-optic cable appears to have merit for improving self-escape from underground mines, and may have other mining and non-mining applications that include improving self-escape visibility.
• Source:
  Light Res Technol. 52(1):64-78
• Pubmed ID:
  38895504
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC11184490
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  52
• Issue:
  1
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:0f7870ae8abb4033013659602673b598a78d45303c6259e5ad6720895e1f77df
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/158132/cdc_158132_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.23 MB ]