Mine Ventilation Network Analysis (b1772a52-9662-487e-9706-834d3bad51c0)

The more stringent ventilation requirements of the 1969 Act have created a greater need for improved network analyses. More air is required at the last open crosscut (9000 cfm) and for the first time a minimum quantity is specified for the face (3000 cfm). Severe restrictions are placed on both belt and track haulage, and the intake air cannot contain more than 2 mg per cu m of respirable dust, to be reduced to 1 mg later. Larger tonnage and longer life mines are the trend today, necessitating multiple fans and shafts. Yet relatively little engineering goes into designing the mine ventilation system. In this paper a ventilation system is designed for a typical Pittsburgh block system, manual calculations are made and then checked by a computer solution. The computer is the ideal tool to try out proposed changes on paper to insure that the entire mine is properly ventilated and no costly adjustments need be made by dumping air. While it is theoretically possible to solve complex ventilation network problems by hand, it is not practical to do so because of the tremendous man-hours required and the many opportunities for errors. Thus the digital computer is indispensible to the ventilation engineer and newer improved ventilation programs are being developed to more realistically model mine ventilation networks. Suggested ventilation changes to comply with the new regulations are also critically evaluated.