Title: Investigation of optimum secondary fan location and air quantity to control DPM recirculation in underground dead-end workings

Authors: Ramakrishna Morla; Shivakumar Karekal; Ajit Godbole; Mahesh Shriwas; Brian Chapula; Jan Jacobs

Addresses: School of Civil, Mining and Environmental Engineering, University of Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia ' School of Civil, Mining and Environmental Engineering, University of Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia ' School of Civil, Mining and Environmental Engineering, University of Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia ' Department of Mining and Geological Engineering, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, 99775-5800, Alaska ' CSA Mine, Glencore, NSW, 2835, Australia ' CSA Mine, Glencore, NSW, 2835, Australia

Abstract: This paper presents a detailed study on optimising the location of auxiliary fans to control DPM-air recirculation in dead-end workings in which diesel-operated vehicles are used. Parametric studies using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models validated against field measurements are presented. The study consists of varying the fan locations from the dead-end crosscut and varying the intake air quantities using a 30 m³/s capacity two-stage 75 kW auxiliary fan. The results showed that if the drive intake air flow rate matches the fan capacity (30 m³/s), recirculation will occur even when the fan is located 10 m away from the crosscut entry. Results also showed that if the intake drive air quantity was greater than or equal to 150% of fan capacity (≥45 m³/s), no recirculation was observed when the fan location was at least 5 m away from the dead-end crosscut access.

Keywords: dead-end; re-circulation; auxiliary fan; cross-cut; DPF; DPM; CFD simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMME.2021.119211

International Journal of Mining and Mineral Engineering, 2021 Vol.12 No.3, pp.195 - 205

Received: 19 Oct 2020
Accepted: 23 Jul 2021
Published online: 29 Nov 2021 *

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