Investigation on fire potential of ventilation ducts

Abstract

Fires in underground mines can create dangerous conditions for personnel and cause severe damage to property. Because of the confined nature of the underground environment, these effects can escalate rapidly. In underground mines, air ducts/bags are used for ventilating narrow blind headings; these consist of combustible materials that have not been investigated thoroughly in terms of their fire potential and gas emissions. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the fire potential and emission factors for these ducts. A preliminary investigation was performed using differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis. These tests provide crucial information for duct samples including the melting point which is used for designing a novel experimental setup for combustion analysis. This setup was used to perform a combustion experiment at 350 °C, so that all specimens can achieve complete combustion. Furthermore, the heat release rate and emission factors were calculated; it was observed that heat release rate for all the specimens was identical because of similar oxygen consumption during the experiment. Sample B has the lowest emission factor among the four samples (A, B, C, D) tested in this study. Keywords: Auxiliary ventilation, Heat release rate, Emission factor, Differential scanning calorimetry, Thermogravimetric analysis