International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 34 (2024) 643–654

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International Journal of Mining Science and Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijmst

Artificial ground freezing of underground mines in cold regions using

thermosyphons with air insulation
Ahmad F. Zueter a,⇑, Mohammad Zolfagharroshan b, Navid Bahrani a, Agus P. Sasmito b
a
Department of Civil and Resource Engineering, Dalhousie University, Halifax B3H4R2, Canada
b
Department of Mining Engineering, McGill University, Montreal H3A0E8, Canada

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Current practice of underground artificial ground freezing (AGF) typically involves huge refrigeration sys-
Received 21 December 2023 tems of large economic and environmental costs. In this study, a novel AGF technique is proposed deploy-
Received in revised form 12 March 2024 ing available cold wind in cold regions. This is achieved by a static heat transfer device called
Accepted 9 April 2024
thermosyphon equipped with an air insulation layer. A refrigeration unit can be optionally integrated
Available online 1 June 2024
to meet additional cooling requirements. The introduction of air insulation isolates the thermosyphon
from ground zones where freezing is not needed, resulting in: (1) steering the cooling resources (cold
Keywords:
wind or refrigeration) towards zones of interest; and (2) minimizing refrigeration load. This design is
Artificial ground freezing
Underground mining
demonstrated using well-validated mathematical models from our previous work based on two-phase
Sustainable mining enthalpy method of the ground coupled with a thermal resistance network for the thermosyphon. Two
Thermosyphon Canadian mines are considered: the Cigar Lake Mine and the Giant Mine. The results show that our pro-
Air insulation posed design can speed the freezing time by 30% at the Giant Mine and by two months at the Cigar Lake
Cold regions Mine. Further, a cooling load of 2.4 GWh can be saved at the Cigar Lake Mine. Overall, this study provides
mining practitioners with sustainable solutions of underground AGF.
Ó 2024 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of China University of Mining & Technology. This is an open
access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction In underground AGF, the ground is typically divided into two

main zones [10]: (1) the relatively deep active zone where ground
Artificial ground freezing (AGF) plays a vital role in the safety of freezing is desired and (2) the passive zone in between the active
many mines especially in cold regions. Most of mining AGF sys- zone and ground surface. Perhaps the most conventional under-
tems target underground operations, where the purpose of AGF ground AGF is pumping chilled brine solutions to freeze the active
can be to ensure geotechnical support of underground structures zone indirectly or directly. In indirect freezing, a high-pressure
[1,2], contain hazardous tailing [3], prevent underground water brine solution is chilled in a refrigeration plant and then pumped
flooding [4], or perform other safety duties. For example, at the towards the active zone, where it exchanges heat with another
Cigar Lake Mine (Saskatchewan, Canada), underground AGF at a low-pressure brine solution. The low-pressure brine solution then
depth of 460 m is necessary to prevent underground water flow flows through freeze-pipes distributed over the active zone level,
towards the mine tunnels [5,6]. At the Giant Mine (Yellowknife, as in the McArthur River Uranium Mine (Saskatchewan, Canada)
Canada), AGF is used to create a frozen block that contains environ- [11,12] where frozen walls are created at a depth of more than
mental waste in underground chambers and stopes at a depth of 50 600 m below the ground surface. On the other hand, in direct
to 150 m [7,8]. AGF techniques have proven to be highly reliable underground AGF, a single brine solution is pumped through
and versatile over a wide range of geotechnical conditions [9]. Nev- freeze-pipes drilled from the ground surface, passing through the
ertheless, one of the main challenges of underground AGF particu- passive zone, towards the active zone. The freeze-pipe in the pas-
larly is the reduction of refrigeration load and their associated sive zone, where ground freezing is not needed, is typically insu-
carbon footprint [4]. Mining industries are therefore keen on devel- lated with an air chamber to minimize the refrigeration load
oping technically efficient technologies that can substantially [13]. Direct underground AGF systems are installed at the Cigar
reduce the economic and environmental costs of AGF. Lake Uranium Mine (Saskatchewan, Canada) [14,15] and the Banji
Coal Mine (Anhui, China) [16] where the active zone is located at a
depth of more than 400 m below the ground surface. While
⇑ Corresponding author.
conventional underground AGF systems are highly reliable, the
E-mail address: [email protected] (A.F. Zueter).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmst.2024.04.010
2095-2686/Ó 2024 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of China University of Mining & Technology.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
A.F. Zueter, M. Zolfagharroshan, N. Bahrani et al. International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 34 (2024) 643–654

refrigeration load required to freeze vast active zones is huge,

resulting in high operational and environmental costs.
More sustainable AGF techniques have been developed and pro-
posed with the aid of two-phase-closed-thermosyphons (TPCT),
which utilize the natural availability of subzero wind to extract
heat from the ground, as shown in Fig. 1a. TPCTs are most com-
monly used at shallow depths to support roads [17,18], buildings
[19], pipelines [20], or other structures, especially in permafrost
regions. As for the mining industry, TPCTs have been installed at
shallow depths as well to support mining dams and dikes, as in
the Diavik and Ekati diamond mines in the Northwest Territories
and Hope Bay Project in Nunavut, Canada [21]. Some of these
applications connect the thermosyphons with an external refriger-
ation plant to resume the cooling process during warm seasons
[22,23]. Recently, deeper TPCTs extending to more than 100 m
below ground surface are used in underground AGF at the Giant
Mine Remediation Project (GMRP) to contain hazardous waste in
underground stopes and chambers [23]. The GMRP is designed to
last for a century, calling for a need to thermally efficient designs
of underground AGF systems that address the active zone
particularly.
In this study, a novel underground AGF system that features
higher technical efficiency as compared with present underground
AGF systems is proposed. The system is based on a TPCT which
runs passively exploiting the availability of cold wind to freeze
the ground. The proposed system can also be operated in a hybrid Fig. 2. Physical 3D diagram of our novel thermosyphon design for underground
mode, so that refrigeration plants can be integrated to satisfy ther- artificial ground freezing.
mal requirements of energy-intensive applications which also
require cooling during warm seasons, such as the Cigar Lake Mine.
The novelty in our TPCT design is incorporating an air insulation
chamber, as shown in Fig. 1b, to steer the cooling capacity of the thermosyphon. During installation in the ground, every two to
cold wind specifically towards the active zone, thus increasing three joints are connected (threaded) together and installed as a
the cooling rate in this area. In hybrid cooling mode, the proposed unit in the ground, similar to the ‘‘stand” in drilling rigs, where
system also decreases the cooling load by minimizing thermal three pipes are connected and installed in the well for drilling or
interaction with the large passive zone. hydrocarbon production purposes.
A physical 3D diagram is shown in Fig. 2 to further illustrate the Overall, our new idea on integrating air chambers to deep ther-
components of our proposed systems. Installation of such system mosyphons enhances geotechnical timeline by speeding up the
could be achieved as follows. A larger size drilling bit is used from freezing process, and energy efficiency by decreasing the cooling
the surface to the end of the passive zone, while the remaining por- load of hybrid systems. Our proposed methodology is demon-
tion is drilled with a smaller size drilling bit. The thermosyphon strated using a well-validated numerical model derived in our pre-
pipes are manufactured with the air chamber integrated onto the vious work [23]. The performance of the proposed system as
compared with conventional thermosyphon systems will be com-
pared for the case of two underground mines, namely the Giant
Mine and the Cigar Lake Mine.

2. Numerical model

Our proposed system is simulated using well-validated numer-

ical models from our previous work [23], where a conjugate ther-
mal resistance network of thermosyphon is coupled with two-
phase heat flow in the ground. The main difference between this
model and that of our previous of work is the introduction of an
air insulation chamber in the passive zone. In the following subsec-
tions, the mathematical model will be firstly presented with gov-
erning equations and boundary conditions. After that, geometry
and mesh discretization will be explained in detail.

2.1. Governing equations and boundary conditions

In the mathematical model, the computational domain is com-

posed of three main zones: ground, air chamber, and steel pipes,
which are connected to a thermal resistance network model for
the thermosyphon. Mathematical modelling of each computational
Fig. 1. Illustration of our proposed concept as compared with conventional ground domain and its corresponding boundary conditions will be eluci-
freezing with thermosyphons. dated in the following subsections and are summarized in Fig. 3.
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Fig. 3. Mathematical model of this study.

2.2. Mathematical model of the ground where water liquid fraction c and qg Lg is the equivalent volumetric
latent of the ground, which relates to ground porosity, /; and volu-
The ground is modelled using the enthalpy method assuming metric latent heat of water, qw Lw , as:
local thermal equilibrium (LTE) between the rock particles and
underground water. The validity of this assumption has been qg Lg ¼ /qw Lw ð4Þ
examined and justified by Alzoubi et al. [24] for ground freezing
applications. The impact of convective heat transfer within the The ground boundary conditions are shown in Fig. 3. In coupling
ground due to underground water flow has been neglected as it between the ground surface and the wind, T wind is the atmospheric
is outside the scope of the present study. The governing equation wind temperature as recorded hourly by local weather stations
of two-phase heat flow within the ground can therefore be given (Fig. 6) and htop boundary =3 W/(m2K) since regions considered in this
using the enthalpy method introduced by Swaminathan and Voller study are often covered with layers of snow and vegetation. Never-
[25] as: theless, the significance of this boundary is usually too low and

 negligible in selective artificial ground freezing systems due to
@ Hg their large depth. The bottom boundary of the ground is set to be
¼ r  ðkg r T g Þ ð1Þ distant enough to ensure that geothermal heat flux is being cap-
@t
tured in the model. It was observed that placing the bottom bound-
where Hg , T g , and kg are the ground averaged enthalpy, J/m3, tem- ary at a distance of 5 m below the thermosyphon is sufficient. The
perature K, and thermal conductivity, W/(mK), respectively; sub- side boundary of the domain, on the other hand, is set at half dis-
script g the ground whereas the over-line bar indicates an tance between two adjacent thermosyphons as per field data
averaged value of rock and water as per the LTE assumption. The (Table 1).
ground enthalpy is calculated with respect to an arbitrary reference
temperature, T ref , as:
2.3. Mathematical model of the air insulation chamber
Z Tg Z Tg
Hg ¼ ð1  cÞ C ps;g dT g þ c C pl;g dT g þ S ð2Þ In air enclosures, the three heat transfer mechanisms, conduc-
T ref T ref
tion, convection, and radiation, can be significant according to
where C ps;g and C pl;g denote the volumetric heat capacity (J/(m3K)) chamber geometry and Rayleigh number. Air insulation enclosures
of frozen and unfrozen ground, respectively. The source term, S, is considered in this study are characterized with a very high aspect
added to include the impact of latent heat of freezing and thawing ratio, defined as the enclosure height to thickness ratio. Buoyant or
as: convective heat currents in this kind of geometries is negligible
especially at low Rayleigh number, as analytically proven by Bejan
@ðc qg Lg Þ [26] and further validated in our previous work [6,13] for the case
S¼ ð3Þ
@t of AGF applications. Since air convection is negligible, heat diffu-
sion inside air insulation chambers is expressed as:
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Table 1
Zones and thermosyphons geometry of the Cigar Lake Mine and four underground chambers of the Giant Mine (B213, B230, B233, and B14) according to mining fields [13,28].

Case lp (m) lt (m) Dt (m) A4 (m2) d (m) lf 1  lf 2 (m)

Cigar Lake 400 460 0.114 39 2.5 428–440

B213 26.1 102.1 0.114 39 2.5 31.1–92.0
B230 62.4 99.4 0.075 31.6 3 67.4–89.4
B233 32.2 91.1 0.075 31.6 3 37.2–81.1
B14 17.9 57 0.075 19.5 4 22.9–46.9

@ qa cp;a T a where qpz and qaz are the heat flux in the ground across the passive
¼ r  ðka rT a Þ ð5Þ
@t and the active zone, W/m2; whereas Q pz ¼ pzP R1 and Q az ¼ T azP
T T T 1
R
where qa ; cp;a , and T a denote air density, specific heat capacity, and the total heat transfer rate in these zones, W.
temperature, respectively. Thermal coupling alongside air enclosure
walls with the steel zone is given as:
  2.5. Geometry, mesh discretization, and numerical parameters
@T a  @T s 
ka  ¼ ks þ Srad ð6Þ
@n airsteel @n airsteel Numerical discretization of mathematical model is achieved
where the source term Srad represents the net radiative heat flux, using second-order upwind schemes. The governing equations
which is the difference between absorbed radiative heat flux and and boundary conditions are solved in conjunction with the non-
emitted radiative heat flux. More details about the radiation model linear model of thermosyphon. Mesh and time-step independence
used in this study can be found in ref. [27]. were conducted, where the mesh-count ranged from 100000 to
300000 nodes according to the case, and time step is set to 36 s.
2.4. Mathematical model of thermosyphon boundary High-performing computers were used to run simulation cases,
where each one lasts for around 3 weeks of computational time.
The thermosyphon boundary condition is calculated based on a The computational domain of this study is created with a 2D
thermal resistance network model, which has been validated in our axisymmetric model, as shown in Fig. 3, as well as ANSYS screen-
previous work [23] against field data from the Giant Mine Remedi- shots in Fig. 4. Evidently, the axial dimension of the domain, which
ation Project [3,28] and controlled experimental study conducted corresponds to system depth, is substantially larger than the radial
by Pei et al. [29]. The thermosyphon thermal resistance network dimension, which is limited to mid-distance between two ther-
takes into account the following: (1) boiling (R1 ), (2) condensation mosyphons. This results in high aspect ratio of the computational
(R2 ), (3) coolant flow along coils (R3 ), and (4) wind flow around domain, necessitating high mesh-element aspect ratio especially
radiator fins (R4 ). The correlations for the heat transfer coefficients near the thermosyphon wall, as shown in Fig. 4. Fine mesh dis-
[30–37] are shown in Fig. 3. After calculating each heat transfer cretization in the radial dimension right next to thermosyphon
coefficient, the corresponding thermal resistance can then be eval- wall is critical to capture high radial temperature changes. While
uated as: highly skewed mesh can generate numerical errors, these can be
insignificant if variable flux in along short-edge dimension is
1 substantially larger than the long edge [39]. Second order accurate
Ri ¼ ; i ¼ 1; 2; 3; 4 ð7Þ
h i Ai schemes in time and temperature were also employed to enhance
where A1 is the boiling surface area; A2 the condensation surface
area; A3 the area of the condenser coil area assuming contact effi-
ciency of 90% [38]; and A4 the total area of the fins (Table 1).
The introduction of air insulation chamber differentiates this
model from previous thermal resistance network models often
adapted in the literature. The presence of air insulation results in
a considerably lower evaporator temperature in the passive zone
compared to the active zone. Thus, distinct temperatures are set
at the evaporator region in the active and passive zones, as shown
in Fig. 3. In addition, three switches, S1 ; S2 ; S3 , are incorporated in
the model. Active and passive cooling modes are controlled by S2
and S3 , as shown in Fig. 3. The buoyant heat transfer cycle within
the thermosyphon is controlled by S1 , so that the buoyant cycle
is deactivated when the evaporator temperature (at the active or
passive zones) is lower than the heat sink temperature, T 1 , which
can be the wind temperature or coolant temperature. Once the
equivalent thermal resistance is calculated according to the ther-
mal resistance network, heat extraction at the passive and active
zones can then be calculated as:

Q pz @T s 
qpz ¼ ¼ ks ð8Þ
Apz @n pz

Q az @T s 
qaz ¼ ¼ ks ð9Þ
Aaz @n az
Fig. 4. Computational domain and mesh from ANSYS software.

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solution accuracy. To further ensure the independence of our respectively. Further, in all cases, the thickness of air cavity is set
results from potential numerical issues associated with highly to be 15 mm as per industry convention [13].
skewed mesh, a mesh independence study is conducted including The extent of the passive zone at the Giant Mine is set to be
four mesh counts: 200296, 229060, 320416, and 400496. The mesh from ground surface to 5 m above the chamber top level, lf 1 . Ther-
aspect ratio in these four cases ranges from 14 to 37. The mesh mosyphon geometry of the Giant Mine cases also vary in depth and
independence results reveal that all scenarios yield in the same diameter according to field practice [28]. All geometrical details
thermal performance within 5%, thus ensuring mesh independent can be found in Table 1. Further, ground properties in the Cigar
solution. Lake Mine and Giant Mine are set according to field measurements
The mathematical model of this study has been thoroughly val- as per Table 2.
idated against controlled experimental measurements of ref. [29] The initial temperature at the Cigar Lake Mine and Giant Mine
at a small lab-scale, followed by field validation at the Giant Mine are shown in Fig. 6 as per field measurements. At the Giant Mine,
of passive thermosyphons [28] and hybrid thermosyphons [3]. All around ten thermocouples measure the ground temperature to a
details on our validation can be found in our previous work [23]. depth of 100 m [23]. As for the Cigar Lake Mine, initial ground tem-
perature at the active zone is recorded at 7 °C [14]. Ground temper-
ature in the passive zone is then calculated given a geothermal
gradient of 25 °C/km. Weather conditions recorded by local
3. Case study weather stations [40] are used in our analysis as shown in Fig. 6.
The wind speed, v 4 , is used in the calculation of wind Reynolds
Underground artificial ground freezing systems of the Cigar number, which is subsequently employed in the evaluation of
Lake Mine and the Giant Mine are considered in this study to ana- wind thermal resistance, as shown in Fig. 3.
lyze our novel system as compared with traditional
thermosyphons.
At the Cigar Lake Mine, the passive zone extends to 400 m 4. Results and analysis
below the ground surface, followed by 60 m of active zone. The
mining operations target freezing the ore-body extending from In the following subsections, performance comparison between
428 to 440 m below the ground surface [13]. At the Giant Mine, conventional AGF using thermosyphons and our proposed selective
four different chambers are selected: B213, B230, B233, and B14. AGF is conducted. Two main criteria are considered: (1) Thermal
The depth of top and bottom levels of the active zone is denoted energy extracted at the passive and active zones, and (2) frozen
lf 1 and lf 2 respectively. These levels are listed in Table 1. ground extent in the active zone. In the first subsection, compar-
The symbols lp ; lt; Dt ; A4 and d represent the passive zone ison is made in fully sustainable mode without refrigeration plants.
depth, thermosyphon depth, thermosyphon outer diameter, radia- In the second subsection, hybrid operation is considered where
tor surface area, and thermosyphons spacing, respectively. These refrigeration plants take part in operating thermosyphons during
dimensions are further illustrated in Fig. 5. The thickness of warm seasons.
1-inch pipes and 3/4-inch pipes are set to 14 and 7.5 mm,
4.1. Passive AGF operation

The ultimate purpose of our proposed system is reducing heat

extraction rate at the passive zone and focusing the cooling
resources towards the active zone to expedite the ground freezing
process. In cold seasons when the atmospheric temperature, T 4 , is
lower than evaporator temperature, T az and T pz , the natural con-
vection cycle inside the thermosyphon is activated. This leads to
a fluctuating heat extraction rate due to the hourly variation of
wind temperature, as shown in Figs. 6 and 7. In warm seasons,
nonetheless, the natural convection cycle is stopped using the
switch S1 shown in Fig. 3. The Giant Mine cases are started on
the first of January whereas the Cigar Lake case is initiated on
the first of July as shown in Fig. 6, leading to different idle duration
period in these cases.
Heat flux at the passive zone is reduced in selective artificial
ground freezing (S-AGF), compared to conventional artificial
ground freezing (C-AGF), as shown in Fig. 7. This is attributed to
the introduction of air insulation cavity in the passive zone in S-
AGF. The level of heat flux reduction at the passive zone depends
on several parameters, such as the height ratio of the passive zone
to the active zone, as well as geological and atmospheric condi-
tions. Evidently, the lower passive-to-active zone ratio (extent of
passive zone divided by the extent of the active zone), the higher
the achieved reduction in heat in the passive zone. The difference
in heat flux at the passive zone is higher at the Giant Mine cham-
bers than that of the Cigar Lake case. The addition of air insulation
chamber results in steering the cold wind energy away from the
passive zone, as shown in Fig. 8.
At the Giant Mine chambers, the heat extraction rate in the
active zone is marginally higher in S-AGF as compared to C-
Fig. 5. Schematic illustration of various dimensions. AGF, as shown in Fig. 9. This is attributed to the relatively low
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Table 2
Thermophysical properties of rocks in the study.

Material C p ðJ=ðk  m3 ÞÞ k ðW=ðm  kÞÞ / Extent

(%) (m)
Frozen rock-1 [23] 2.32106 2.61 1 Throughout
Unfrozen rock-1 [23] 2.34106 2.59 1 Throughout
Frozen rock-2 [13] 1.42106 3.87 6 0–428
Unfrozen rock-2 [13] 1.51106 3.58 6 0–428
Frozen rock-3 [13] 1.57106 2.63 15 428–440
Unfrozen rock-3 [13] 1.81106 2.15 15 428–440
Frozen rock-4 [13] 1.33106 2.46 4 440–500
Unfrozen rock-4 [13] 1.39106 2.36 4 440–550

Note: Rock-1 refers to the rock of the Giant Mine whereas rock-2, rock-3, and rock-4 refer to the bedrock at the Cigar Lake Mine at different depths. Thermophysical properties
of CO2 can be found in ref. [23].

Fig. 6. Wind temperature, wind speed, and ground temperature at the Giant Mine and Cigar Lake Mine.

Fig. 7. Comparison on the heat extraction rate at the passive zone between our proposed system and a conventional system.

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Fig. 8. Comparison on total energy lost at the passive zone between our proposed system and a conventional system.

Fig. 9. Comparison on heat extraction rate at the active zone between our proposed system and a conventional system.

passive zone depth (20 to 60 m). On the other hand, at the Cigar The progression of the frozen ground for the case of the Cigar
Lake, heat extraction rate at the active zone using our proposed Lake Mine is elucidated in Fig. 11. Notably, the passive zone above
system is notably higher than that of a conventional system z=400 m remains unfrozen throughout the first two years. As for
due to the large extent of the passive zone. Specifically, energy the active zone below z=400 m, the ground also remains unfrozen
extracted at the active zone is around 30% higher especially in throughout the first six warm months since the thermosyphon is
the first year, as shown in Fig. 10. In subsequent years, the advan- idle during these periods. As the first winter approaches in nine
tage of employing our proposed system gradually diminishes. This months, the upper part (z=400428 m) and lower part
is attributed to the gradual decrease of ground temperature with (z=440460 m) of the active zone freeze first due to the low water
every winter. The decrease of heat extraction in subsequent win- content in these regions due to its low porosity (Table 2). Nonethe-
ters especially occurs as the ground freezing process is close to less, the area between lf 1  lf 2 (z=400428 m) which encapsulates
completion. the mining site is not frozen due to its substantially higher porosity

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Fig. 10. Comparison on total energy extracted at the active zone between our proposed system and a conventional system.

Fig. 11. Progression of frozen ground for the case of the Cigar Lake Mine using our proposed system.

and accordingly water content, which raises the latent heat of the Overall, it is noted that passive wind cooling of the ground
ground as per Eq. (3). By the end of the first year, the middle part of can take one winter only for most of the Giant Mine cases,
the active zone remains unfrozen. In subsequent warm seasons, except for chamber B14, as shown in Fig. 12. Our proposed sys-
the unfrozen area expands further due to heat diffused from the tem reduces the freezing time in chambers B230, B213, and
passive zone and lower ground levels. Finally in the second winter, B233 by 5% to 30%. In the other cases, namely chamber B14
the middle part of the active zone freezes, thus completing the AGF and the Cigar Lake Mine, more than one winter is needed. Cham-
process. ber B14 requires longer cooling period due to the higher spacing

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Fig. 12. Freezing time at different levels across the active zone.

between thermosyphons as per the mine design highlighted in 4.2. Hybrid AGF operation
Table 1. In the case of selective freezing operation of B14, this
duration could possibly be further reduced to a single month In cases where more energy needs to be extracted to achieve
by optimizing the design of the air gap to be somewhat shorter. fast ground freezing, refrigeration plants are often connected to
This would minimize ground heat exchange at lf 1 with direct thermosyphons as shown in Fig. 1, especially to run ther-
upper ground levels, while still focusing wind cooling power to mosyphons during warm seasons. Such kinds of AGF systems are
active zone in general. As for the Cigar Lake Mine, the large referred to as hybrid AGF, where both winter wind and refrigera-
depth of the mine as well as the higher initial temperature of tion plants take part in the AGF process. As shown in Figs. 13 and
the active zone demand high energy extraction over at least 14, the thermosyphon is no longer idle for most of the warm sea-
two winters. sons. The heat extraction rate is more stable when refrigeration

Fig. 13. Comparison on the heat extraction rate at the passive zone in hybrid freezing mode between our proposed system and a conventional system.

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Fig. 14. Comparison on the heat extraction rate at the active zone in hybrid freezing mode between our proposed system and a conventional system.

Fig. 15. Freezing time at different levels across the active zone.

plants are operated during warm seasons due to the steady tem- The enhancement of the freezing time in chamber B14 and the
perature of the coolant at 30 °C. Cigar Lake is accompanied by a reduction of refrigeration cooling
Due to the added cooling rate of refrigeration, the freezing time load per pipe as shown in Fig. 16. In chamber B14, the cooling load
has decreased to less than a year in all cases, as depicted in Fig. 15. wasted in the passive zone using our proposed system is less than
Our proposed system has decreased the freezing time by around half of that of a conventional system; furthermore, the cooling load
20% and 10% for the cases of chamber B14 at the Giant Mine and utilized in the active zone of our proposed system is slightly
the Cigar Lake Mine, respectively. The freezing time of other Giant higher, which is desirable. As for the Cigar Lake Case, the resulting
Mine chambers does not change substantially as they freeze pas- cooling load of our proposed system is also lower by around 4
sively with winter wind as already observed in Fig. 12. MWh in comparison to a conventional system. For a total of around

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Fig. 16. Cooling load of refrigeration per thermosyphon in the first year.

600 thermosyphons needed at the Cigar Lake Mine, total reduction (2) As for the Cigar Lake Mine, hybrid wind-refrigeration cooling
of around 2.4 GWh in cooling load could be achieved. is needed to avoid extensive freezing periods. Our proposed
system decreases the freezing time and refrigeration load by
5. Conclusions three months and 4 MWh per thermosyphon, respectively.
For a total of around 600 thermosyphons required at the
Artificial ground freezing (AGF) plays a pivotal role in ensuring mine, energy saving in terms of cooling load can amount
the safety of mines, especially in cold climates. However, conven- for 2.4 GWh.
tional underground AGF practices often involve large refrigeration
systems that come with substantial economic and environmental In summary, our study provides mining practitioners with sus-
costs. In this study, a novel AGF technique is introduced with the tainable and effective solutions for underground AGF operations in
primary objective of efficiently utilizing naturally available cold cold regions. By harnessing the power of natural cold wind and
wind as an alternative to traditional refrigeration systems. This advanced thermosyphon technology, we offer a promising path
innovative approach is implemented through the use of ther- towards enhanced safety, cost savings, and decarbonization in
mosyphons with an air insulation cavity. While this device oper- AGF practices.
ates naturally during cold seasons, it allows for the optional
inclusion of a refrigeration plant to address heavy cooling require- Acknowledgements
ments during warmer periods. The introduction of air insulation
plays a crucial role in isolating the thermosyphon from the passive The first author extends gratitude to the Killam Postdoctoral
ground zone where freezing is unnecessary. This design offers two Trust at Dalhousie University, while the second author expresses
key advantages: first, it enables the precise allocation of cooling appreciation towards the McGill Engineering Doctoral Award.
resources to the deep-freezing zones of interest; and second, it
minimizes the refrigeration load when hybrid cooling is adopted. References
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