Determination of natural heating and cooling of intake air in underground mines

• Main Author: Johnson, Olga S
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Subjects: engineering, mechanical; engineering, mining; health sciences, occupational health and safety
• ISBN: 9780612935587; 0612935582

This thesis is connected with mine natural heating and cooling of intake air. In some cases the fresh air from the mine surface passes through a mass of broken rock down to an underground mine [17], [18]. It is very important to apply natural cooling (in summer) or heating (in winter) to large old deep mines' intake fresh air systems due to considerable economical savings. This study illustrates the heating and cooling processes of air passing to the mine through a mass of pit muck (gathering area), which acts as a heat exchanger between the broken rock and the intake fresh air.
The study is done on a mine area which maintains certain positive temperature all the year round. In different seasons of the year the broken rock area may become frozen (contain ice) or non-frozen. In mid-winter the upper rock layer is frozen whereas the broken rock at the bottom has a temperature few degrees above zero. In late summer all the rock has above zero temperature. The mine surface temperature changes according to the weather whereas the rock temperature at the bottom of the gathering area is assumed to be nearly constant the whole year. The new concept in this thesis is a theoretical solution, which shows the temperature variation of the broken rock in different seasons of the year according to the weather conditions as a continuation of the author of this thesis' previous research works [16]. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)