This lecture discusses sources of heat in underground mines. The major sources are strata heat from surrounding rocks, auto-compression of air, machinery/lights, and underground water. Strata heat is a major concern as temperature increases with depth due to Earth's core. The rate of temperature increase with depth is called the geothermal gradient. Heat flows from higher to lower temperatures through conduction, convection, and radiation. Factors like thermal conductivity of rocks and virgin rock temperature influence the flow of strata heat into mine airways.
This lecture discusses sources of heat in underground mines. The major sources are strata heat from surrounding rocks, auto-compression of air, machinery/lights, and underground water. Strata heat is a major concern as temperature increases with depth due to Earth's core. The rate of temperature increase with depth is called the geothermal gradient. Heat flows from higher to lower temperatures through conduction, convection, and radiation. Factors like thermal conductivity of rocks and virgin rock temperature influence the flow of strata heat into mine airways.
This lecture discusses sources of heat in underground mines. The major sources are strata heat from surrounding rocks, auto-compression of air, machinery/lights, and underground water. Strata heat is a major concern as temperature increases with depth due to Earth's core. The rate of temperature increase with depth is called the geothermal gradient. Heat flows from higher to lower temperatures through conduction, convection, and radiation. Factors like thermal conductivity of rocks and virgin rock temperature influence the flow of strata heat into mine airways.
This lecture discusses sources of heat in underground mines. The major sources are strata heat from surrounding rocks, auto-compression of air, machinery/lights, and underground water. Strata heat is a major concern as temperature increases with depth due to Earth's core. The rate of temperature increase with depth is called the geothermal gradient. Heat flows from higher to lower temperatures through conduction, convection, and radiation. Factors like thermal conductivity of rocks and virgin rock temperature influence the flow of strata heat into mine airways.
1.0 INTRODUCTION 2.0 SOURCES OF HEAT IN MINES 3.0 STRATA HEAT 3.1 Geothermal Step and Geothermal Gradient 3.2 Thermal Conductivity of Rocks 3.3 Heat Flux 3.4 Virgin Rock Temperature 3.5 Fouriers Law 3.6 Factors determining Strata Heat Flow in Mines 3.6.1 Primary Factors 3.6.2 Secondary Factors
REFERENCES
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1.0 INTRODUCTION Human beings are capable of working efficiently within a certain range of temperatures. Temperature is concerned with degree of hotness. Temperature of a substance or body is liable to change when we have a source of heat. Heat always flow from high temperature to low temperature body. This flow can take place in any one of the three ways of transferring heat- conduction, convection and radiation (Fig.1). These modes of transferring heat mainly cause flow of sensible heat. Through evaporation, transfer of latent heat takes place. In this case, we do not sense the rise in temperature, but heat content of the body is increased. In underground mines, there are many sources of heat which cause rise of temperature of air during its travel in mine airways. The condition may worsen if the temperature of the air increases beyond a certain limit. The situation becomes more critical especially when humidity of air also increases simultaneously. In such situation, we require air conditioning of mine air. We have to set up refrigeration plants, spot coolers, etc. so as to ensure comfort, safety and high working efficiency of workers in mines. On the other hand, in areas with extreme cold climatic conditions, we need to supply heat to the air on the surface before sending it to underground mines. 2.0 SOURCES OF HEAT IN MINES 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. The major sources of heat in underground mines are: o
Strata heat
Auto-compression
Machinery and lights
Underground water
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Fig.1 Types of heat transfer in mines (after Vutukuri and Lama, 1986) The minor sources of heat in mines include o
Human metabolism
Oxidation
Blasting
Rock movement
Pipelines
Energy losses in airflow
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Energy losses in air flow
Strata Heat
Autocompr ession
Pipelines
Machinery and lights
Sources of heat Rock movement
Human metabolis m
Blasting
0xidation
Fig.2 Sources of heat in mines
3.0 STRATA HEAT
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 Page 4 of 9
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.
3.1 Geothermal Step and Geothermal Gradient
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.
Fig. 3 Different layers of earth with depth
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. = and Page 5 of 9
= Change in temperature () = Change in depth (m) 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 Table 1 Values of geothermic gradient in various mines (after Banerjee, 2003 & Hartman et al, 1982) Location Jharia coalfield, India, coal measure rocks Raniganj coalfields , India, coal measure rocks Singareni coalfields, India, coal measure rocks Kolar Gold Fields, India Mosabani copper mine, India South African gold mines Coal mines, UK Mount Isa mines, Australia Magma copper, Arizona Agnew nickel , Australia
Thermal conductivity of a rock () 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:a. Chemical composition of the rocks (rocks are aggregates of minerals) b. Water content of the rock c. Temperature d. Pressure e. Radioactive decay (if any) etc. Thermal conductivity has units of W/(m) 3.3 Heat Flux 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 earths heat flux ranges from 0.04 0.06 W/m2. We take average value as 0.05 W/m2 for calculation purpose.
3.4 Virgin Rock Temperature
It is also called as the natural rock temperature. The temperature of a rock at a particular depth below earths surface because of the geothermal energy stored in it is called virgin rock temperature. It is determined by borehole technique with an accuracy of 1.5. It is a very important factor in determining the heat flow from the strata to a mine airways.
3.5 FOURIERS Law
It is also called Fouriers law of conduction of heat. The law states: The rate of heat transfer through a material medium is proportional to the negative of temperature gradient and area of the medium. Mathematically, it can be explained as ()
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Therefore, we can write
= Where, = heat transfer rate (W or J/s) = thermal conductivity of the material (W/(m)) = area of the material (m2)
= temperature/thermal gradient (/m)
-ve sign indicates reduction of temperature in the direction of heat flow.
Using Fouriers 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). 3.6 Factors Determining Strata Heat Flow in Mines 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. 3.6.1 Primary factors o o o o o
Geothermic gradient Thermal properties of rock like thermal conductivity, thermal capacity Difference between virgin rock temperature (VRT) and dry bulb temperature Length of the mine airways Humidity and pressure
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Rate of mineral production
3.6.2 Secondary factors
o o o o o o
Roughness of rock surface
Shape and size of airway Air Volume flow Nature of air-rock interface Inclination of airway Age of the airway
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 Banerjee S.P. (2003); Mine Ventilation; Lovely Prakashan, Dhanbad, India. Hartman, H. L., Mutmansky, J. M. & Wang, Y. J. (1982); Mine Ventilation and Air Conditioning; John Wiley & Sons, New York. Le Roux, W. L. (1972); Mine Ventilation Notes for Beginners; The Mine Ventilation Society of South Africa. McPherson, M. J. (1993); Subsurface Ventilation and Environmental Engineering; Chapman & Hall, London. Misra G.B.
(1986); Mine Environment and Ventilation; Oxford University Press,
Calcutta, India. Vutukuri, V. S. & Lama, R. D. (1986); Environmental Engineering in Mines; Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
