Name: Loren Mae Detalo Date: February 9, 2023

Course/Year: BSEM 3 MINE VENTILATION

ACTIVITY 10

A. Answer the following questions:

(Your answer should not be entirely similar with the answers by the author of the book, as
much as possible create your own answer.)
1. Differentiate “Forcing Ventilation vs Exhausting Ventilation”. Show illustration to
explain further. Discuss how significant it is to know their main features or advantages in
choosing the right secondary ventilation system.
- Forcing Ventilation
This type of ventilation pushes fresh air onto the gallery face. It has the following main
characteristics:
 It favors the removal of the gases at the active face.
 It decreases the re-entrance times after blasting.
 The air carried to the face is relatively fresh.
 The exhaust gases return through the gallery with
the associated disadvantages.
 Dust is forced into suspension and dispersed by
turbulence.

Exhausting Ventilation
Here a fan is placed at one of the ends of a duct extracting air from inside it drawing out
contaminated air causing clean air to sweep the face. Its most important features are:
 It provides a permanently clean zone between the entrance to the gallery and the
beginning of the suction duct.
 It does not move contaminants directly through the gallery but confines them to the duct.
  It does not achieve an efficient sweep of the
blasting gases at the face because the air that enters
through the gallery does so across the whole available
section, which decreases its speed and with it its
turbulence. Moreover, air entering the gallery will not
necessarily traverse the face before entering the duct, a
factor which also diminishes the effectiveness of this
system.
 Mixed exhaust ventilation scheme is not usually
used unless the active face is being advanced by road
headers or continuous miners.
 The scheme cannot be used in works with firedamp
(e.g. ITC 05.0.03 ap.2 (MITC 2000)).
 Dust is directly evacuated meaning that this system
is preferred in dusty conditions.

2. Differentiate “Mixed Systems vs Overlaps System”. Show illustration to explain further.

Enumerate at least 5 advantages and 5 disadvantages of using the two ventilation systems.
Mixed systems
This system comprises two fans both located in
the main gallery one of which is in a forcing
arrangement while the other is exhausting. If the
exhausted airflow rate is greater than the forced
one, the air returns mainly through the exhaust
duct. Conversely, if the forced airflow rate is
higher than the exhausted one, the air returns
through the gallery. Although this system
combines many of the advantages of the two
previously mentioned systems it also has many of
their disadvantages, and in addition, its
installation is more complex and more expensive
than either of them. The system uses either rigid
ducts or steel reinforced canvas ducts.
Overlap System
In an overlapping ventilation system two fans are used,
with one of them placed very close to the active face.
There are many possible configurations, but the most
frequently used is shown in Fig. 8.5. Here, the forcing
fan is closest to the face, while the exhausting fan,
which must extract a greater flow to reduce
recirculation, is placed furthest away. Normally the
recommended configuration for the case of coal mines is
(E.g.: ASM-51):
• Distance between the face and air inlet of exhaust duct
10 < √S.
• Distance between the face and the forcing duct <5 √S.
• The zone of overlap between the exhaust and forcing systems should be between √S and 5√S.
• With the additional requirement that the flow circulating through the main gallery must be at
least 1.3 times greater than that circulating through the exhaust duct. With regard to the height at
which the ducts are to be laid, the exhausting duct is usually located on the roof of the gallery, as
the gases in the gallery tend to be hot and will, therefore, rise.

3. Enumerate the different Factors Equipment Selection and Design Consideration in

Auxiliary Ventilation. Discuss each of these factors.
- In selecting fans and ducts for an auxiliary ventilation system, the designer must keep in mind a
number of factors. The most important are the following:
1. Compliance with Company Rules and Government Regulations. A number of considerations
may be important here, including noise, state and federal regulations on auxiliary fans, and
whether strata gases may be encountered. Noise associated with a blowing system is generally
more of a problem than with an exhaust system. In either system, noise is generally high, and
noise-attenuation equipment may be desirable or required to meet company rules or
governmental regulations. Noise also affects productivity, and this should be considered in the
design procedure.
2. Efficiency of the System. An auxiliary fan always requires power, and this power adds to the
overall costs of operating the ventilation system. If the fans are to be operated continuously
during production, the efficiency of the fans should be considered. It may be justifiable to
purchase more costly fans if their efficiency is higher. The type of tubing should also be
considered, as the energy efficiency varies significantly with tubing type.
3. Standardization of Equipment. A mine that uses auxiliary fans may wish to standardize the
duct types and sizes and the models of fans utilized to reduce the inventory of equipment and to
allow for easy design of new installations. Standardization also helps to ensure that equipment
and spare parts are available when needed.
4. Interface with Other Ventilation Circuits in the Mine. The designer must keep in mind the
possible effects that auxiliary ventilation systems will have on the other ventilation circuits in the
mine. It may be desirable to add doors, stoppings, brattices, or other ventilation control devices
to ensure that ventilation is suitable both while the auxiliary fan is operating and when it is not
operating.
5. Leakage, Return Air, and Compressibility Considerations. When designing longer ventilation
pipe or tubing installations, it may be necessary to consider leakage, head losses in the return
airflow, and the compressibility effect in the tubing. These effects are generally ignored in
shorter tubing systems but may be significant as the length of tubing increases.
The selection process requires the operation of fans and ducts at the right time efficiency in
intended application. The capabilities of the proposed system can be design for various fan blade
configurations and information is readily available.
4. Explain the following terms and show images together with your discussions:
• Auxiliary Fans and Vent Pipe or Tubing
- There are several different fans that can drive auxiliary ventilation systems, both axial and
centrifugal. The popularity of self-propelled axial fans is due to their small size and the ability to
be placed in series. A major advantage of auxiliary fans is that they can be used in many face-to-
face underground operations. Areas requiring ventilation are located away from the main
ventilation air supply. Auxiliary fan is selected accordingly special requirements of the room to
be ventilated and range of diameter, power and weight fan in general. Routes, climbs and tunnels
must be installed or suspended above the floor of the opening, but larger non-coal mines.

Mine fans and auxiliary fans can be wheeled or

self-propelled for improvement their mobility.
Additional fans are very helpful, but the amount
of noise they produce troublesome. Fiberglass,
resin extrusions, or galvanized steel are
typically used to create rigid ducts or vents
tube. Most fiber optic ducts are circular in cross
section, but oval fiber optic ducts are also
available. For use in mines where headroom is
limited. Instead, flexible hoses are used in many
mines these are typical. It is made of bratis-like
material and can be folded for fans and steel
fins. For use with exhaust fans. In mines,
collapsible vent pipes are often called "bags".
Fans and hoses usually cost more, but guarantee less
leaks than the Brattice. Fans and tubes are becoming
increasingly common in metal mines and are replacing
bratis in coal mines. Forced and induced assisted
ventilation systems are widely used, with dust and gas
control characteristics similar to the Brattice system. The
advantage of the fan system compared to the Brattice
Face ventilation system is that the primary fan head is
increased and the total flow is increased (Wallace et al.,
1990).

• Booster Ventilation
- Use of underground booster fans to process only a
portion of the total audience auxiliary category to
supplement recirculating air and primary fans
Ventilation actually called booster ventilation the
booster fan widely used in non-coal mining but, they
are not allowed in US coal mine. Where permitted,
booster fans can be used effectively in high
impedance splits to reduce the total pressure drop
across the parallel circuit that the primary fan must
overcome. There are three methods of distributing
the required volume of air to the branches of a
parallel circuit with unequal pressure drops across all
branches. Control the split using a booster fan with a
high impedance split to create balance. Free split achieved by reducing K, O, or L or increasing
number of airways in A or high impedance split to compensate pressure drops. They are listed
according to their economic operating costs in order of preference savings. Example, can be
expected by comparing the performance requirements of each method pre-determined system.

• Controlled Recirculation
Recirculation Logic
Reuse or recirculation of air in underground mines has historically been discouraged, especially
in coal mines where methane is likely to be found. Air reuse is the process of taking air from one
work surface and using it to ventilate another work surface or area. Reuse is not recommended,
but it is often done on a limited basis in coal mines, where the exhaust can be reused in
continuous mining machines to ventilate the roof he anchor sites (or vice versa). Recirculation is
defined as ventilation air from a mine passing through the same point more than once (Jones,
1987). Basically, recirculation is a specific form of reuse, used to aerate the same strut or mining
area multiple times as the air passes through the mine. Controlled recirculation is the term used
for recirculation circuits that are intentionally designed and used in a controlled manner to
provide ventilation benefits without adversely affecting other ventilation variables. This type of
recirculation is referenced here.

Recirculation has been prohibited in many countries for coal mining operations because of the
fear that ventilating air would be used in a manner that would allow unsafe quantities of methane
gas to accumulate. The use of controlled recirculation was suggested in the 1930s (Lawton,
1933), but it was not given serious consideration until the 1960s. At that time, a number of
researchers began to investigate more thoroughly the potential benefits and disadvantages of
recirculation in mining operations (Bakke et al. 1964; Leach, 1969). Many papers have appeared
in the technical literature since that time that outline the benefits of recirculation. The use of
controlled recirculation circuits is considered to be beneficial in mines where;
1. Mine intake air must be heated because of cold climates.
2. Mine air is refrigerated for reasons of comfort or productivity.
3. Added velocity at the face would result in better turbulent mixing of air and methane at the
point of release.
4. Added velocity at the face would more effectively carry away dusts.
5. Working faces are far removed from the mine portals, such as in undersea mining.

B. PROBLEM SOLVING
5. A proposed auxiliary ventilation system, consisting of a 25-hp (18.6- kW) fan exhausting
from 16-in. (400-mm)-diameter tubing, was tested on the surface prior to underground
installation. A manometer connected to a pitot tube centered in the duct read 3.4 in. water
(846 Pa) near the duct intake. Assuming standard conditions, what would be the quantity
of airflow within the duct at this point?