Underground Mine Environmental Impact on RF Coupling to Electric Blasting Caps

Details

• Personal Author:
  Holloway CL ; Waynert J
• Description:
  The 2006 Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act (MINER Act) requires all U.S. underground coalmines to install wireless communications and electronic tracking equipment. An RF transmitter (Tx) may induce currents in nearby conductors and hence, may interact with the lead wires of a blasting cap generating sufficient current in the leads to cause an inadvertent firing of the cap. There are standards and guidelines that prescribe a minimum separation distance between transmitters to ensure that such induced currents or powers are below an assumed threshold. Generally these prescriptions account for the possible enhancement of the electric fields at the receiver (Rx) (cap) due to ground bounce. In underground mines, there may be additional reflections off the walls and roof that can further enhance the superposed fields indicating that the minimum separation distances recommended by the standards may not be adequately conservative in the underground mine environment. This paper presents analysis and corroborating measurement results to indicate that the presence of additional reflecting surfaces as in a mine environment can enhance the transmitted electric fields experienced by an Rx beyond the field levels predicted in the standards. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Atmosphere Disaster Planning Emergencies Emergency Responders Environmental Monitoring Fires Hazardous Substances Mining Occupational Health Risk Assessment Safety

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• Keywords:
  Coal-mining Electronic-equipment Mining-industry Radio-waves Underground-mining
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• ISBN:
  9781467353151
• ISSN:
  1522-3965
• Publisher:
  IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  Colorado ; Florida ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 8 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OMSHR - Office of Mine Safety and Health Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20043214
• Citation:
  2013 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI National Radio Science Meeting, July 7-13, 2013, Orlando, Florida. Piscataway, NJ: IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) and the U.S. National Committee of the International Union of Radio Science (USNC-URSI), 2013 Jul; :1918-1919
• Email:
  jwaynert@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2013
• NORA Priority Area:
  Mining
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  2013 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI National Radio Science Meeting, July 7-13, 2013, Orlando, Florida
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:feca2d36dd82bc64273b40f5feac0fc76125a0ab035df72df90de199963a83e83221d5238b6f57a8bdb0aea45786a5f54428e006b0ba29e063aaeb1a5ff34192
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/228002/cdc_228002_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 213.07 KB ]