Mine Ventilation

Fresh air for people, machines and safety. Designing the airflow that keeps underground mines breathable and safe: airflow requirements for people, diesel equipment and gas dilution; airway resistance and Atkinson's equation; ventilation networks and fans; mine gases; and heat, autocompression and refrigeration in deep mines.

• Airflow Requirements — How much air does a mine need? Learn the purposes of ventilation, airflow for people and diesel equipment (m³/s per kW), dilution of gases and dust, minimum and maximum air velocities, primary vs auxiliary ventilation, and how to build a total mine airflow estimate.
• Airway Resistance & Networks — Air loses pressure as it flows through rough airways. Learn Atkinson's equation, friction factors, airway resistance (p = RQ²), shock losses, series and parallel combinations, natural splitting of airflow, regulators, and ventilation network analysis with software.
• Mine Fans — Fans provide the pressure that drives mine airflow. Learn axial and centrifugal fans, fan characteristic curves, the operating point with the mine resistance curve, fan power and efficiency, fan laws for speed changes, fans in series and parallel, and main vs booster vs auxiliary fans.
• Mine Gases — Underground air can contain dangerous gases. Learn the properties and limits of methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide, nitrogen dioxide and oxygen deficiency; explosive range of methane; gas detection; methane drainage; blast fumes and re-entry; and dilution calculations.
• Heat & Refrigeration — Deep mines get hot. Learn heat sources (virgin rock temperature, autocompression, machinery, blasting), the geothermal gradient, wet-bulb temperature and heat stress limits, air cooling power, refrigeration plants, bulk air coolers and ice plants.