Mine ventilation measurements with tracer gas method and evaluations of turbulent diffusion coefficient

Abstract

Tracer gas measurements have been carried out at the Pongkor underground gold mine, Indonesia, to evaluate mine ventilation flows and to investigate the effective turbulent diffusion coefficients in mine airways. The airflow routes and quantity, and the diffusion coefficient have been obtained by matching the measurements with numerical simulations using the advection-diffusion equation. Two leakages with flow quantity of 26.7 and 36.7 m 3 /s were detected. Reduction of leakages have been measured with the method after stopping the leakage routes. The turbulent diffusion coefficients for the simple airways have good agreement with the Taylor equation. However, for complex airways in operating mines, the coefficients show higher values (1.5 to 32 times) than that obtained by the Taylor equation and these have been compared with the data measured in the Kushiro coal mine, Japan. It is mainly affected by the ratio of airway length over equivalent diameter and airway frictions, but airflow mixing along the airway also has an effect on the diffusion coefficient.

Discrete Tracer Point Method to Evaluate Turbulent Diffusion in Circular Pipe Flow

“…Widodo, Sasaki, Gautama and Risono [14] also conducted tracer gas measurement in an underground mine ventilation airways. They found higher diffusion coefficient for the airways flow than those evaluated using Equation (1) for smooth pipe.…”

Predicting gas dispersion in large scale underground ventilation: A particle tracking approach

“…To solve this limitation, Sasaki and Dindiwe (2002), Widiatmojo et al (2013), Widodo, Sasaki, and Gautama (2008) proposed a modified correlation of Equation (7). Node …”

“…The use of the tracer gas measurement to detect leakage and recirculation in underground ventilation has been studied by Arpa et al (2008), Sasaki and Dindiwe (2002) and Widodo, Sasaki, and Gautama (2008). In their work, the measurement was carried out by releasing a tracer gas at certain upstream point and its arriving concentration was further monitored at certain downstream position.…”

Metode Gas Tracer Untuk Evaluasi Efisiensi Ventilasi Tambang Bawah Tanah

“…Selain untuk mengetahui kebocoran udara, hasil pengukuran perunut gas juga mempunyai informasi tentang difusi turbulensi yang dialami selama perjalanan. Nilai difusi turbulensi ini, menurut beberapa penelitian sebelumnya merupakan fungsi dari beberapa parameter seperti bilangan Reynolds, diameter terowongan, dan persentase rongga pada dinding terowongan (Arpa, Widiatmojo, Widodo, & Sasaki, 2008;Widiatmojo et al, 2015;Widodo, Sasaki, & Gautama, 2008). Makalah ini mendiskusikan hasil pengukuran gas perunut yang dilakukan di tambang emas bawah tanah Cibaliung, PT.…”