Diesel exhaust gas dynamics in underground mines

When designing mine ventilation, there are currently a number of problems that yet have no scientific substantiation and solution. These problems include the calculation of the necessary and sufficient amount of air to dilute gases generated during operation of machines with internal combustion engines (ICE). During operations in an underground mine, the actual values of the composition and quantity of exhaust gases were measured. The results obtained allowed drawing some conclusions regarding hazardous exhaust emissions of various-type vehicles with internal combustion engines. No general dependence on the engine speed was discovered. Furthermore, it was found experimentally that auxiliary mining vehicles with internal combustion engines had worse indicators in terms of the amount of harmful exhaust gases than load–haul–dumpers and mine dump trucks. The authors propose to use the method of full-scale determination of the qualitative and quantitative composition of exhaust gases. Three-dimensional modeling was used to evaluate the dynamics of exhaust gas emissions from diesel engines and to determine the basic parameters for the proposed method. Non-stationary calculations of exhaust gas distribution were carried out using Ansys CFD software package. The results obtained made it possible to formulate the basic principles of carrying out measurements in a mine to obtain average concentrations of harmful gases in a roadway cross-section. These data can be used to determine the amount of air required to dilute exhaust gases down to standard values.The authors appreciate participation of V. V. Nagornyuk, Chief Underground Mine Engineer, Yakovlevsky GOK in this study.