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Heat in Underground Mines
Heat in Underground Mines
Heat in Underground Mines
1.0 INTRODUCTION
REFERENCES
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1.0 INTRODUCTION
There are various sources of heat in underground mines. Some are major
contributors of heat addition to air and some are minor. Some of them are
unavoidable, while some of them require utilization of proper techniques for their
reduced effect. Fig.2 shows the various sources of heat in mines.
o Strata heat
o Auto-compression
o Machinery and lights
o Underground water
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Fig.1 Types of heat transfer in mines (after Vutukuri and Lama, 1986)
o Human metabolism
o Oxidation
o Blasting
o Rock movement
o Pipelines
o Energy losses in airflow
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Strata Heat
Energy
Autocompr
losses in ession
air flow
Pipelines Machinery
and lights
Sources
of heat
Rock
movement
Human
Blasting metabolis
m
0xidation
Strata heat is a major source of heat underground mines. In some cases especially
in deep mines, it becomes intolerable and we require installation of refrigeration
systems so as to provide safe and comfortable working conditions. The term strata
heat means the heat emitted from the surrounding rocks and getting added to the
mine atmosphere. Subsurface rocks mainly have their heat reservoirs in the core
portion of the earth, which emits heat and that heat gets transferred to the upper
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part of the earth like mantle and crust. In crust part of the earth, mining is
practiced. Thus, whenever we go for subsurface mining, strata heat is a major
factor that has to be considered while planning ventilation system so as to create
comfortable working conditions.
The term ‘geo’ means earth, ‘thermal’ means heat and ‘gradient’ means change in a
particular quantity with respect to distance. Thus, we can define ‘geothermal
gradient’ as the change of heat/temperature of subsurface rocks with respect to
distance. In general, temperature of the subsurface rocks increases with depth.
The increasing trend with depth is because of the core part of the earth which gets
nearer and nearer as we go down, Fig. 3.
In mining, we generally make use of the term ‘geothermal step’, which is defined as
the depth per degree centigrade rise in temperature. If we look carefully, we can
easily make out that, geothermal step is inverse of geothermal gradient. Let us
have a look at their units.
∆𝑇
𝑔𝑒𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑙 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡 = ℃/𝑚
∆𝑍
and
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∆𝑍
𝑔𝑒𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑝 = 𝑚/℃
∆𝑇
Both geothermal step as well as geothermal gradient may vary from place to place
depending upon the types of the rocks found in the area, thermal properties of the
rock, presence of underground water reservoirs, etc. It is also greatly influenced by
the age of the rock, and igneous activities going in the region. At around 15 m
depth from the earth surface, temperature is constant, as at this depth, there will
be no significant variation of temperature with the change in the climatic conditions
observed on the surface of the earth. After approximately 15 m, it starts showing a
uniform increase in the temperature with depth at a particular place. Table 1 gives
a brief idea about the variation of geothermic gradient in different mine districts of
the world
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Thermal conductivity of a rock (𝑘) is defined as the heat flow across a surface per
unit area per unit time when a particular temperature difference exists in a unit
length perpendicular to the surface. It depends on following factors:-
It is defined as the heat rate (J/s) per unit area, the direction of heat flux is in the
direction of negative temperature gradient. The earth’s heat flux ranges from 0.04 -
0.06 W/m2. We take average value as 0.05 W/m2 for calculation purpose.
The rate of heat transfer through a material medium is proportional to the negative
of temperature gradient and area of the medium.
∆𝑇
𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑓𝑒𝑟 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 (𝑞) ∝ −
∆𝑍
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∝ 𝐴
Where,
Using Fourier’s law, if we know the thermal conductivity of rock and heat flux at a
particular place, we can easily calculate geothermal gradient at that place. It is
important to mention that it is a very difficult task to exactly determine the thermal
conductivity of rocks. The reason being, the conductivity of a rock obtained in the
laboratory test are likely to differ from the actual conductivity of rocks in the field.
This is because, conductivity varies with pressure at a particular depth, directional
nature of mineral contents, presence of any fluid, etc. Further, determination of
heat flux of strata in the mine is also a cumbersome task as it involves a large
number of variables (discussed in detail latter).
Heat flow into mine airways from the strata is very complex in nature. It involves a
large number of variables/factors that significantly influences the rate of heat flow.
These variables may be classified into two broad categories i.e., primary factors
and secondary factors.
o Geothermic gradient
o Thermal properties of rock like thermal conductivity, thermal capacity
o Difference between virgin rock temperature (VRT) and dry bulb temperature
o Length of the mine airways
o Humidity and pressure
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o Rate of mineral production
There are many other factors like design and layout of air conditioning, cooling
plant, etc. which too play a vital role in strata heat flow to the underground mine
environment.
Besides a large number of factors involved, the determination of heat flow from
strata is done empirically. Analytical approach involves concept of three
dimensional, time transient heat conduction (McPherson, 1993).
REFERENCES
Le Roux, W. L. (1972); Mine Ventilation Notes for Beginners”; The Mine Ventilation
Society of South Africa.
Misra G.B. (1986); “Mine Environment and Ventilation”; Oxford University Press,
Calcutta, India.
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