Enhancement of ventilation system energy efficiency through the change of aerodynamic characteristics in skip shafts in deep mines

The increasing production outputs in underground mining leads to the increased air requirements for mine ventilation. Mine air supply can be enhanced by adding the mine ventilation system with the existing non-airing shafts which are the skip shafts, as a rule. Air delivery in skip shafts can consume much energy as the shafts have a small diameter and a plenty of process equipment installed. Aimed to assess expedience of converting skip shaft SS-1 in NorNickel’s Oktyabrsky Mine to an air supply shaft, the energy consumption of the shaft ventilation is analyzed as function of the shaft diameter, air flow velocity and the aerodynamic drag factor. The energy consumption of shaft ventilation is not higher than 20% of total energy spent to maintain air flow rate in all underground openings at the shaft diameters from 6.5 m and larger and at the air velocities not less than 9 m/s in the shaft. The theoretical analysis of air distribution in the mine versus the aerodynamic drag factor and shaft diameter shows that the most effective approach to reducing the linear ventilation energy input at any air velocities in the shaft is the decrease in the aerodynamic drag factor. This is a hard hitting objective as it requires re-equipment of the shaft and the mining process shutdown.

Keywords: mine ventilation, skip shaft, energy consumption, numerical modeling, energy efficiency, aerodynamic drag factor, shaft diameter, air velocity.
For citation:

Pospelov D. A., Zaitsev A. V., Semin M. A., Maltsev S. V., Mizonov E. N. Enhancement of ventilation system energy efficiency through the change of aerodynamic characteristics in skip shafts in deep mines. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2021;(9):135-144. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236_1493_2021_9_0_135.

Acknowledgements:

The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Project No. 19-77-30008.

Issue number: 9
Year: 2021
Page number: 135-144
ISBN: 0236-1493
UDK: 622.4
DOI: 10.25018/0236_1493_2021_9_0_135
Article receipt date: 02.12.2020
Date of review receipt: 10.02.2021
Date of the editorial board′s decision on the article′s publishing: 10.08.2021
About authors:

D.A. Pospelov1, Junior Researcher, e-mail: dimapospelov7@gmail.com,
A.V. Zaitsev1, Dr. Sci. (Eng.), Head of Sector,
M.A. Semin1, Cand. Sci. (Eng.), Researcher,
S.V. Maltsev1, Cand. Sci. (Eng.), Engineer,
E.N. Mizonov, Deputy Director of Mining Department at OJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel of developing mining operations, OJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel, Moscow, Russia,
1 Mining Institute of Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Perm, Russia.

 

For contacts:

D.A. Pospelov, e-mail: dimapospelov7@gmail.com.

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