Study on Integration of Real-Time Atmospheric Monitoring System Monitoring Data and MFIRE Simulation
Lihong Zhou, Pittsburgh Mining Research Division at NIOSH; Davood Bahrami, Pittsburgh Mining Research Division at NIOSH ; Liming Yuan, Pittsburgh Mining Research Divsion at NIOSH; Richard A. Thomas, Pittsburgh Mining Research Division at NIOSH; Gregory P. Cole, Pittsburgh Mining Research Division at NIOSH; James H. Rowland, Pittsburgh Mining Research Division at NIOSH
The past several decades have seen a steady increase in the use of atmospheric monitoring system (AMS) in underground mines as sensor technology has advanced and costs have decreased. AMSs are a reliable tool for early mine fire warning by detecting carbon monoxide in strategic areas such as belt entries. During a mine fire emergency, a good knowledge of fire conditions like fire location, fire intensity, where in the mine the smoke and toxic gases have spread, and whether designated mine escape-ways have been contaminated by smoke and toxic gases from the fire is critical for decision makers to make right decisions on firefighting strategies and miner evacuation. Typical AMS data alone cannot provide this information. However, the integration of real-time AMS monitoring data and mine fire simulator, MFIRE, is able to locate a fire, monitoring the real-time fire intensity, and predict the smoke and toxic gas spread in the entire ventilation network on a real-time basis. A real-time method for determining the size and location of an underground mine fire, and the spread of contaminants throughout the mine ventilation network, using data from atmospheric monitoring systems integrated into MFIRE 3.0 in this paper.
