MINE VENTILATION AND SAFETY

Subsurface ventilation systems

Asst. Prof. Dr. Abdullah FİŞNE

Research Assistant Samet Can ÖZER
Research Assistant Olgun ESEN
Subsurface ventilation systems

1. Introduction

Practically every underground opening is unique in its geometry, extent,

geological surroundings, environmental pollutants and reasons for its formation
- natural or man-made. The corresponding patterns of airflow through those
openings are also highly variable. There are, however, certain features that are
sufficiently common to permit classifications of structured ventilation systems
and subsystems to be identified.
In this chapter, we shall discuss the essential characteristics of subsurface
ventilation systems, first on the basis of complete mines and primary airflow
routes. The opportunity is taken to introduce some of the technical terms used
by ventilation engineers.

Secondly, we shall look at district systems for more localized areas of a

mine.
Thirdly, auxiliary ventilation systems will be examined, these dealing with the
ventilation of blind headings. The chapter also deals with the principles of
controlled partial recirculation and the ventilation of underground repositories
for nuclear waste or other stored material.
Subsurface ventilation systems

2. The essential elements of a ventilation system

Subsurface ventilation systems

2. The essential elements of a ventilation system

Fresh air enters the system through one or more downcast shafts, drifts (slopes,
adits), or other connections to surface. The air flows along intake airways to the
working areas or places where the majority of pollutants are added to the air.
The contaminated air passes back through the system along return airways.
Main fans, either singly or in combination, handle all of the air that passes
through the entire system. In developing a mine, connections are necessarily
made between intakes and returns.
When these are no longer required for access or ventilation, they should be
blocked by stoppings in order to prevent short-circuiting of the airflow.
Stoppings can be constructed from masonry, concrete blocks or fireproofed
timber blocks.
Where abandoned areas of a mine are to be isolated from the current
ventilation infrastructure, seals should be constructed at the entrances of the
connecting airways. If required to be explosion-proof, these consist of two or
more stoppings, 5 to 10 metres apart, with the intervening space occupied by
sand, stone dust, compacted non-flammable rock waste, cement-based fill or
other manufactured material. Steel girders, laced between roof and floor add
structural strength. Grouting the surrounding strata adds to the integrity of the
seal in weak ground. In coal mines, mining law or prudent regard for safety may
require seals to be explosion-proof.
Subsurface ventilation systems

2. The essential elements of a ventilation system

Where access must remain available between an intake and a return airway, a
stopping may be fitted with a ventilation door. In its simplest form, this is merely
a wooden or steel door hinged such that it opens towards the higher air
pressure. (Doors and airlocks).

A regulator is simply a door fitted with one or more adjustable orifices. Its
purpose is to reduce the airflow to a desired value in a given airway or section
of the mine. The most elementary passive regulator is a rectangular orifice cut
in the door and partially closed by a sliding panel. The airflow may be modified
by adjusting the position of the sliding panel manually.

Where intake and return airways are required to cross over each other then
leakage between the two must be controlled by the use of an air crossing. The
two airstreams can then be separated by horizontal girders and concrete blocks,
or a steel structure with metal or timber shuttering. Sealants may be applied on
the high pressure side. Control of the airway gradients approaching the air
crossing reduces the shock losses caused by any sudden change of airflow
direction. Man-doors can be fitted into the air-crossing for access.
Subsurface ventilation systems

3. District Systems –The Design

Underground ventilation layouts serving one or more districts of a mine may be
divided into two broad classifications, U-tube and through- flow ventilation.

U-tube ventilation is that air flows towards and through the workings, then
returns along airways separated from the intakes by stoppings and doors. Room
and pillar layouts and advancing longwalls tend to be of this type. The U-tube
method is the only one capable of ventilating pilot workings that are advancing
into an unmined area.

In the Through-flow ventilation system; primary intakes and returns are

separated geographically. Adjacent airways are either all (or mainly) intakes or
returns and, hence, reducing the number of leakage paths. Through-ventilation
requires the prior establishment of one or more connections between main
intake and return airways.
Subsurface ventilation systems

3. District Systems –The Design

Subsurface ventilation systems

3. District Systems –The Design

Through-ventilation has several significant advantages. First, leakage of air from

intake to return is greatly reduced. Hence, lower total airflows are required to
provide any required ventilation at the working face.

Secondly, the parallel airways and, often, shorter total travel distance of the
airstream give a lower district resistance - particularly for workings distant from
the main shafts. This permits reduced ventilating pressures.

The combination of lower total airflows and lower ventilating pressures leads to
large reductions in ventilation operational costs. Furthermore, the fan duties will
remain much more stable in a through-flow system than the escalating demands
of an advancing Utube layout.
Subsurface ventilation systems

3. District Systems - Longwalls

The two major features of longwall mining that have influenced the design
of their ventilation systems are, first, the control of methane or other
gases that accumulate in the waste (gob) areas and, second, the high
rate of rock breakage on heavily mechanized longwalls that exacerbates
the production of dust, gas, heat and humidity.
Subsurface ventilation systems

3. District Systems - Longwalls

Single entry systems are employed primarily in European coal mines. Figures 4.6
(a and b) show the application of the Utube principle to advancing and retreating
longwalls respectively. With the advancing system, leakage of some of the intake
air occurs through the waste area, controlled by the resistance offered by the
roadside packing material and the distribution of resistance and, hence, air
pressure around the district. This can give rise to problems of gob fires in mines
liable to spontaneous combustion.

Figure 4.6(c) shows a single entry longwall with the back (or bleeder) return held
open in order to constrain the gas fringe safely back in the waste area and,
hence, prevent flushes of waste gas onto the face. The system illustrated in (c) is
a combination of U-tube and through-flow ventilation.

Figure 4.6(d) illustrates the longwall system more often used in coal mining
countries that have a tradition of room and pillar mining such as the United
States, Australia or South Africa. Two or more entries are driven initially using
room and pillar mining, these serving as the lateral boundaries of retreat longwall
panels. Again, back bleeders are used to control waste gas.
Subsurface ventilation systems

3. District Systems - Longwalls

Figures 4.6(e), (f) and (g) illustrate a classification of systems for longwall faces
where the make of gas from the face itself is particularly heavy. The Y system
provides an additional feed of fresh air at the return end of the face. This helps
to maintain gas concentrations at safe levels along the back return airway(s).
Figure 4.5(d) is, in fact, a double entry through-flow Y system. The double-Z
layout is also a through-flow system and effectively halves the length of face
ventilated by each airstream. The W system accomplishes the same end but is
based on the U-tube principle.
Subsurface ventilation systems

4. Auxiliary Systems – Line Brattices and Duct Systems

Auxiliary ventilation refers to the systems that are used to supply air to the working
faces of blind headings. Auxiliary ventilation may be classified into three basic
types, line brattices, fan and duct systems, and "ductless" air movers. Ideally,
auxiliary systems should have no impact on the distribution of airflows around the
main ventilation infrastructure, allowing auxiliary ventilation to be planned
independently from the full mine ventilation network. Unfortunately, this ideal is not
always attained, particularly when line brattices are employed.
Subsurface ventilation systems

4. Auxiliary Systems – Line Brattices and Duct Systems

Figure 4.14 shows line brattices used in the (a) forcing and (b) exhausting
modes. The flame resistant brattice cloth is pinned between roof and floor, and
supported by a framework at a position some one quarter to one third of the
airway width from the nearest side. This allows access by continuous miners
and other equipment.

Figure 4.15 shows the corresponding forcing and exhausting systems using
auxiliary fans and ducting. In most cases, in-line axial fans are used although
centrifugal fans are quieter and give higher pressures for the longer headings.
The advantages of an auxiliary fan and duct are that they provide a more
positive and controlled ventilating effect at the face, they cause no additional
resistance to the mine ventilation system nor any consequential leakage
throughout the network, and are much less liable to leakage in the heading
itself. For headings longer than some 30 metres, auxiliary fans are the only
practicable means of producing the required airflows. An exhausting duct also
allows the air to be filtered, an advantage for dust control where series
ventilation is practiced. The disadvantages involve the initial capital cost, the
need for electrical power at the fans, the space required for ducts and the noise
produced by the fans.
Subsurface ventilation systems

4. Auxiliary Systems – Forcing, exhausting, and overlap systems

In hot mines, the forcing system provides cooler air at the face, even having
taken the energy added by the fan into account. Furthermore, as the system is
under positive gauge pressure, the cheaper type of flexible ducting may be
used. This is also easier to transport and enables leaks to be detected more
readily. The major disadvantage of a forcing system is that pollutants
added to the air at the face affect the full length of the heading as the air
passes back, relatively slowly, along it.
Where dust is the main hazard, an exhausting system is preferred. The polluted
air is drawn directly into the duct at the face-end allowing fresh air to flow
through the length of the heading. However, the lack of a jet effect results in
poor mixing of the air.
Subsurface ventilation systems

4. Auxiliary Systems – Forcing, exhausting, and overlap systems

The more common methods of combining the advantages of forcing and

exhausting ducts are overlap systems. Examples are shown on Figure 4.16. The
direction and mean velocity of the air in the heading within the overlap zone
clearly depends upon the airflows in each of the ducts. These should be
designed such that the general body airflow in this region does not become
unacceptably low. Where permitted by law, controlled recirculation may be used
to advantage in overlap systems
Subsurface ventilation systems

4. Auxiliary Systems – Air Movers

In addition to conventional ducted systems of auxiliary ventilation, a number of
other techniques may be employed to enhance or control the movement of air
within localized areas of a mine or tunnel. Jet fans, sometimes known as
ductless, vortex or induction fans are free standing units that produce a relatively
high velocity outlet airstream.

An airflow can also be generated by a spray of water giving rise to spray fans.
Inertia from the motion of the water droplets is transmitted to the air by viscous
drag and turbulent induction. Spray fans may be used very effectively to control
the local movement of air around rock-winning machines such as continuous
miners or longwall shearers. This assists in the rapid dilution of methane and in
diverting dust-laden air away from operator positions. The effect depends upon
the shape, velocity and fineness of the spray. Although dust suppression prays
also cause air induction it is usually necessary to add additional sprays if these
are to be used for local airflow control. Provided that the service water is
chilled, spray fans are also an efficient means of cooling the air in a work area.
Subsurface ventilation systems

5. Controlled Partial Recirculation

The idea of recirculating air in any part of a gassy mine has, traditionally, been
an anathema to many mining engineers. Most legislation governing coal mines
prohibits any ventilation system or device that causes air to recirculate. The
background to such legislation is the intuitive fear that recirculation will cause
concentrations of pollutants to rise to dangerous levels. A rational examination of
controlled recirculation was carried out by Leach, Slack and Bakke during the
1960's at the Safety in Mines Research Establishment in England. Those
investigators made a very simple and obvious statement but one that had, to that
time, apparently been denied or ignored within the context of air recirculation.
They argued that the general body gas concentration, C, leaving any ventilated
region of a mine is given by;
Subsurface ventilation systems

5. Controlled Partial Recirculation

The value of C is quite independent of the flowpaths of the air within the
region, including recirculation. It is true, of course, that if the through-flow of
fresh air falls while the gas emission remains constant then the concentration
of gas will rise.
The definition of a system of controlled partial recirculation is one in which a
controlled fraction of the air returning from a work area is passed back into the
intake while, at the same time, the volume flow of air passing through the
region is monitored to ensure that it remains greater than a predetermined
minimum value.
The advantages of controlled partial recirculation lie in the improved
environmental conditions it can provide with respect to gases, dust and heat,
as well as allowing mining to proceed in areas of a mine that are too distant
from surface connections to be ventilated economically by conventional
means.
Subsurface ventilation systems

5. Controlled Partial Recirculation

As with gas, concentrations of respirable dust reach predictable maximum levels

in a system of controlled recirculation and may be reduced significantly by the
use of filters. The greater volume of air being filtered results in more dust being
removed. The effect of controlled recirculation on climatic conditions is more
difficult to predict. However, both simulation programming and practical
observations have indicated the improvements in the cooling power of partially
recirculated air for any given value of through-flow ventilation.
If, for example, the methane concentration returning from a conventionally
ventilated face is 0.3 per cent, and the safe mandatory limit is 1.0 per cent, then
the through-flow provided from the main airways might be reduced to one half
giving a methane concentration of 0.6 per cent while maintaining or increasing
the face velocities by controlled recirculation.
Subsurface ventilation systems

5. Controlled Partial Recirculation

Figure 4.17 shows two

examples of a primary exhaust
system configured for controlled
recirculation. In both cases, an
airflow Qt (m3/s) is available at
the last open cross-cut and
contains a gas flow of Gi (m3/s).
An airflow of Qh passes up the
heading where a gas emission
of Gh is added.
Subsurface ventilation systems

5. Controlled Partial Recirculation

In a district recirculation system the general body gas concentration at no place is

greater than the return general body concentration with or without recirculation.
The maximum allowable methane concentrations in coal mine intakes may be
prescribed by law at a low value such as 0.25 per cent. The value of F should be
chosen such that this limit is not exceeded. Similar analyses may be carried out
for dust concentrations. In this case, drop-out and the use of filters can result in
significant reductions in the concentrations of dust in a system of controlled
partial recirculation. However, the enhanced air velocities in the work area should
not exceed some 4 m/s as the re-entrainment of settled particles within the
airstream accelerates rapidly at greater velocities.
The climatic conditions within a system of controlled partial recirculation depend
not only upon the airflows and positions/duties of the fans but also upon the
highly interactive nature of heat transfer between the strata and the ventilating
airstreams
Subsurface ventilation systems

This is the end of today