Engineering Aspects of Coal Mine Ventilation Systems

The s ingle most c r i t i c a l f a c t o r a f f e c t i n g t h e h e a l t h and s a f e t y o f workers engaged i n t h e coa l -winning p r o c e s s i s the mine envi ronment ; which i s b r o a d l y d e f i n e d as t h e space i n which man works when underground and i n c l u d e s t h e p h y s i c a l and c h e m i c a l c o n d i t i o n s of t h e s u r r o u n d i n g e n c l o s u r e a n d t h e nearby mining equipment . A fundamenta l o b J e c t i v e of a mine v e n t i l a t i o n system is t o supply t h i s environment w i t h a n a d e q u a t e and s u f f i c i e n t q u a n t i t y of uncontaminated f r e s h a i r . It is t h e l a r g e s t s i n g l e l o g i s t i c s a p p l i c a t i o n i n h e a l t h and s a f e t y f o r underground c o a l m i n i n g o p e r a t i o n s . It is sometimes n e c e s s a r y t o c o u r s e i n t a k e a i r t h r o u g h s e v e r a l m i l e s of underground airways i n o r d e r t o a c h i e v e t h i s p u r p o s e . Leakages w i l l be s e v e r e and y e t a n adequate s u p p l y of fresh a i r must be d e l i v e r e d t o t h e las t open c r o s s c u t o u t b y of t h e a c t i v e f a c e . This p r o c e s s i s i d e n t i f i e d as q u a n t i t y c o n t r o l . Equal ly i m p o r t a n t , i f n o t more c r u c i a l , i s t h e q u a l i t y c o n t r o l p r o c e s s d e a l i n g w i t h the c o n t r o l o f r e s p i r a b l e c o n t a m i n a n t s l i b e r a t e d d u r i n g mining o p e r a t i o n s .