Enhancing Ventilation and Development Planning in Underground Stone Mines: Insights from a CFD-Based Study

Details

• Personal Author:
  Addis J ; Gangrade V ; Harris M ; Mohamed K ; Raj KV ; Sarkar S
• Description:
  The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducted a ventilation assessment for a recently established underground room-and-pillar stone mine implementing split-mine ventilation. The primary objective was to examine the impact of the length of the in-place stone stoppings on face ventilation efficiency. These stone stoppings serve to separate the intake and exhaust entries and align with the mining direction. To achieve this, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling was utilized. The appropriate turbulence model was selected, and a mesh convergence analysis was conducted for the CFD model. Following that, the CFD model was validated using the conducted ventilation surveys. Two configurations of in-place stone stoppings, designated as Layout-I and Layout-II, were simulated using the validated CFD models. Layout-I featured a shorter in-place stone stopping, while Layout-II had a longer one. The results obtained from the CFD models demonstrated that the increased length of the in-place stone stopping in Layout-II resulted in a notable enhancement in ventilation efficiency at the advanced faces (last stopping), elevating it from 4% in Layout-I to 8.4% in Layout-II. However, no significant impact of the in-place stopping layouts was observed at other faces. In general, Layout-II exhibited a greater circulation of air at the outby stoppings. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Mining Occupational Health Safety Ventilation
• Keywords:
  Airflow Mining Industry Room And Pillar Mining Stone Mines Underground Mines
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• Publisher:
  Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME)
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 10 ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Pennsylvania ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  PMRD - Pittsburgh Mining Research Division ; SMRD - Spokane Mining Research Division
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-9
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20069438
• Citation:
  MineXchange: 2024 SME Annual Conference & Expo, February 25-28, 2024, Phoenix, Arizona, preprint 24-034. Englewood, CO: Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration, 2024 Feb; :1-9
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2024
• NORA Priority Area:
  Mining
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  MineXchange: 2024 SME Annual Conference & Expo, February 25-28, 2024, Phoenix, Arizona, preprint 24-034
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:1246274fca18df82e4a60f245f2ad17d0dd5aa33244438fb1a14e3cfd6c0352bf7038a702ead64bc6db39c288913d8b64a108c1b38d6ce346c61823b2b3a5895
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/215673/cdc_215673_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.44 MB ]