An Algorithm for the Efficient Placement of Air Quality Sensors in Underground Mines

Details

• Personal Author:
  Momayez M ; Requist KB
• Description:
  Current regulations for the placement of air quality sensors in underground mines in the USA have been subject to varied debate, especially regarding sensor locations and spacings. Ideally, sensor placement in underground mines should initially focus on areas where dangerous air mixtures are likely to be, such as along beltways or at the working face. Beyond this, however, lies a concern about the lack of guidelines for the placement of non-regulatory, fixed air quality monitors in underground mines. As more operations turn to real-time air quality monitoring, any configuration of sensors should consider a near-even distribution of sensors throughout these areas to support mine-scale estimation and monitoring of airborne contamination distributions. We present an algorithm for the efficient placement of air quality sensors (EPAQS) in underground mines that provides an optimized spatial distribution of sensors when considering the effects of the ventilation network's airflow. This algorithm provides suggested placements of air quality sensors in underground mining environments to provide an even statistical coverage of the ventilation system for future work in mine-scale contamination distribution estimation using spatial statistics. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollutants, Occupational Air Pollution Mining Occupational Health Safety Ventilation
• Keywords:
  Air Contaminants Air Quality Air Quality Monitoring Algorithms Atmosphere Analyzers Author Keywords: Atmospheric Monitoring Systems Combinatorics Graph Theory Mining Engineering Sensors Underground Mines Underground Mining

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• ISSN:
  2524-3462
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Arizona ; Dallas Region [OSHA] ; New Mexico ; San Francisco Region [OSHA]
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20070803
• Citation:
  Min Metall Explor 2025 Apr; :[Epub ahead of print]
• Contact Point Address:
  Kate Brown Requist, Department of Mining and Geological Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
• Email:
  katebrown@arizona.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2025
• Performing Organization:
  New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20210901
• Source Full Name:
  Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration
• End Date:
  20250831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6c6665efbb45c7dd3a18ed51eb5bc7d9683b5b63793bf22ef840b572768cdb2d9850a665791903c24adb24214d769833a69d2303809eed4d0cb8ea9ecd06e714
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/208956/cdc_208956_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.04 MB ]