During the development of an underground explosion phenomenon, due to the energy of dynamic wave, important mechanical effects are registered both in the affected mine workings and in ventilation constructions (stoppings and seals, ventilation doors, regulators and air crossings). An explosion directly affects the ventilation network by modifying specific operational parameters of the main fans. This creates a different natural post event repartition of the air flows, at the branch level. In order to ensure safety conditions after the event, it is necessary to restore the ventilation network. This complex process is based on critical pathways, for whose identification were first established ventilation constructions in relation with their emergency level. This paper presents the process for restoring a mining ventilation network affected by an explosion, following the determination of critical pathways, through successive steps for restoring the ventilation in circuits affected by the wave front. For presenting these steps and for highlighting obtained results, a case study was conducted, based on a hypothetical, medium intensity explosion scenario, produced in the underground of Uricani coal mine, a mining unit in the Jiu Valley carboniferous basin, Romania, using 3D CANVENT specialized software for modeling, simulating and solving ventilation networks.
The simulation of different situations that may occur in the operation of the mine ventilation network is performed on its virtual model, developed and optimized using dedicated software. Depending on the chosen scenario, on the network model are applied a number of changes (addition of new ventilation workings, addition / removal of branches and nodes, changes in aerodynamic parameters: pressure, air flow driven by the fan etc.), the ultimate goals being: to assess how the new model obtained respond to anticipated requirements, diagnose of existing or potential problems, providing a quick feedback to the operator by making available all the data necessary for decision making process. The complexity of the simulation lies in the need to execute a number of operations due to changes of the network structure and symbolism carried out on the virtual model. This article aims to simplify this process through automation and efficiency using software subroutines, subroutines containing the entire chain of operations performed for each step of the simulation, in order to reduce the simulation time and the level of complexity required for understanding the phenomena that occur in the mine ventilation networks.
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