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Study of heat release rates of mining vehicles in underground hard rock mines
Mälardalen University, School of Business, Society and Engineering, Future Energy Center.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8326-2860
2015 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

A unique study on fire safety in hard rock underground mines with focus on heat release rates of mining vehicles is presented. A literature inventory was conducted with respect to fires in underground hard rock mines, which revealed that the most common fire cause in underground mines was flammable liquid sprayed onto hot surface and the most common fire object was a vehicle. A major concern was the lack of documented fire experiments in mining vehicles and heat release rate curves. It also revealed the limited research carried out on fire safety and fire development on vehicles found in hard rock underground mines.

In order to fill the gap of knowledge lack on heat release rates, fire experiments were carried out on wood cribs and wooden pallets in a model-scale tunnel with longitudinal ventilation where the distance between the fuel items were kept constant as well as varied. Different ignition criteria were applied in the ensuing calculations. It was found that the critical heat flux criterion generally showed very good agreement with the corresponding results of performed fire experiments but tended to have too short ignition times when the distance between the fuel items was increased. The ignition temperature criterion generally performed poorly compared with the measured results, but it was found that the accuracy improved considerably as the distance between the fuel items and the amount of energy accumulated on the fuel surface was increased.

As a final approach, two full-scale fire experiments were carried out in an operative underground mine using a wheel loader and a drilling rig respectively. The resulting heat release rates of the experiments were compared with calculated overall heat release rates applying the different ignition criteria. It was found that the critical heat flux criterion resulted in ignition times very close to the observed ignition times. The ignition temperature criterion resulted in surface temperatures that never achieved the corresponding ignition temperatures. Some difficulties were experienced when calculating the heat release rate curve of the wheel loader, as it was difficult to accurately predict the mechanical failure of a significant part initiating the highly significant fire in the hydraulic oil. Additional heat terms were added to the heat balance, where the added flame radiation term was found to have a large impact on the output results while the heat loss terms were found to have very little effect.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Västerås: Mälardalen University , 2015.
Series
Mälardalen University Press Dissertations, ISSN 1651-4238 ; 178
National Category
Other Engineering and Technologies not elsewhere specified
Research subject
Energy- and Environmental Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-27776ISBN: 978-91-7485-201-1 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mdh-27776DiVA, id: diva2:799853
Public defence
2015-05-27, Delta, Västerås, 13:15 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2015-04-02 Created: 2015-03-31 Last updated: 2015-06-29Bibliographically approved
List of papers
1. Overview of fire and smoke spread in underground mines
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Overview of fire and smoke spread in underground mines
2010 (English)In: Proceedings from the fourth international symposium on tunnel safety and security, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, March 17-19, 2010 / [ed] Anders Lönnermark & Haukur Ingason, Borås: SP Fire Technology , 2010, p. 483-494Conference paper, Published paper (Other academic)
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Borås: SP Fire Technology, 2010
Keywords
Fire spread; smoke spread; underground mine; vehicle fire; fire modelling; ventilation network simulation program.
Research subject
Energy- and Environmental Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-9452 (URN)
Conference
Fourth international symposium on tunnel safety and security
Projects
GRUVAN
Available from: 2010-04-26 Created: 2010-04-05 Last updated: 2015-04-02Bibliographically approved
2. Methodologies for calculating the overall heat release rateof a vehicle in an underground structure
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Methodologies for calculating the overall heat release rateof a vehicle in an underground structure
2012 (English)In: Proceedings from the fifth international symposium on tunnel safety and security", New York, USA, March 14-16, 2012 / [ed] Anders Lönnermark & Haukur Ingason, 2012Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Most common type of object involved in fires in underground structures such as underground minesare vehicles [1-3]. A major concern is the lack of documented fire experiments in vehicles/mobileequipment, which is especially the case for working vehicles such as loaders, drilling rigs etc. Theresulting heat release rate (HRR) curves are essential knowledge when designing new tunnel or minesections and overlooking existing sections, thus there is a great need for HRR curves.This paper encompasses the measurement of the HRR for two full-scale fire experiments with vehiclesrepresentative for underground structures and the reconstruction of the measured HRR by investigatingwhat methodology that fits the measured values best. The main purpose of the methodologies is toprovide HRR curves without having to perform full-scale fire tests of the vehicles, which would be ofconsiderable value.

Keywords
Heat release rate, critical heat flux, vehicle fire, tunnel, underground structure
National Category
Engineering and Technology Energy Engineering
Research subject
Energy- and Environmental Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-23618 (URN)
Conference
The fifth international symposium on tunnel safety and security", New York, USA, March 14-16, 2012
Available from: 2013-12-16 Created: 2013-12-16 Last updated: 2015-04-02
3. Analysis of methodologies for calculating the heat release rates of mining vehicle fires in underground mines
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Analysis of methodologies for calculating the heat release rates of mining vehicle fires in underground mines
2015 (English)In: Fire Safety Journal, ISSN 0379-7112, Vol. 71, p. 194-216Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Four different methodologies for calculating the ignition of different components on a mining vehicle in a mine drift were analysed. The results were compared with two full-scale fire experiments on mining vehicles. The four different methods are based on physical relations for fire spread between combustible components of the mining vehicles. The first two methods use a critical heat flux as ignition criterion while the other two methods use an ignition temperature. A sensitivity analysis was performed and the most influencing parameter of the methods was further analyzed. The calculated results were compared with the measured results from the experiments. The two methodologies applying an ignition temperature criterion were ruled out at as the surface temperatures of all fuel components never achieved the corresponding ignition temperatures. For the two methods applying a critical heat flux criterion it was found that the expression not including a flame radiation term was not suitable as it was found that the flame radiation played an important part with respect to spread mechanisms. The expression containing a flame radiation term was found to come very close to the observed ignition times, except in the case of the left, rear tyre of the drilling rig where it predicted a much higher ignition time than the one observed. The difference is unclear and would have to be investigated further. It was also found that the surface heat losses had none effect on the output results and could therefore be neglected in the calculations. In the case of the wheel loader the calculated heat release rate curves did not match the measured curve as well as in the case of the drilling rig. The difficulty in this case consists of accurately predicting the mechanical failure of a component - in this case a suction hose - that would initiate the very significant hydraulic oil pool fire.

Keywords
Fire spread, Heat flux, Heat release rate, Ignition, Ignition temperature, Mine drift, Mining vehicle, Atmospheric temperature, Construction equipment, Drilling rigs, Experiments, Failure (mechanical), Fires, Sensitivity analysis, Vehicles, Heat Release Rate (HRR), Ignition criterion, Ignition temperatures, Influencing parameters, Mechanical failures, Mining vehicles, Surface temperatures, Underground mine transportation
National Category
Other Engineering and Technologies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-27222 (URN)10.1016/j.firesaf.2014.11.008 (DOI)000349728000018 ()2-s2.0-84918565578 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2014-12-29 Created: 2014-12-29 Last updated: 2016-05-13Bibliographically approved
4. An Engineering tool to calculate heat release rates of multiple objects in underground structures
Open this publication in new window or tab >>An Engineering tool to calculate heat release rates of multiple objects in underground structures
2011 (English)In: Fire safety journal, ISSN 0379-7112, E-ISSN 1873-7226, Vol. 46, no 4, p. 194-203Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Simple theoretical calculations of the overall heat release rate (HRR) of multiple objects have been carried out. The results were compared to fire experiments in a model tunnel using wood cribs placed at equal distance from each other. Three different methods are presented which are based on physical relations for fire spread between the wood cribs. The first method uses a critical heat flux as ignition criteria while the other two methods use an ignition temperature. The method using the critical heat flux as ignition criteria shows very good agreement with the corresponding experimental results used. The two methods using the ignition temperature as ignition criteria did not agree well with the corresponding experimental results. The prerequisites, that the methods should be kept relatively simple to be of practical use and that the burning objects should not necessarily have to be of uniform composition, were fulfilled.

National Category
Engineering and Technology
Research subject
Energy- and Environmental Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-11304 (URN)10.1016/j.firesaf.2011.02.001 (DOI)000290137300005 ()2-s2.0-79952988887 (Scopus ID)
Projects
GRUVAN
Note
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03797112Available from: 2011-01-04 Created: 2011-01-04 Last updated: 2017-12-11Bibliographically approved
5. Heat Release Rates of Multiple Objects at Varying Distances
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Heat Release Rates of Multiple Objects at Varying Distances
2012 (English)In: Fire safety journal, ISSN 0379-7112, E-ISSN 1873-7226, Vol. 52, p. 1-10Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Simple theoretical calculations of the overall heat release rate (HRR) of multiple objects at both constant and varying distances have been carried out. The results were compared to both fire experiments in a longitudinal ventilated model tunnel (scale 1:15) using piles of wooden pallets placed at varying distance from each other and with model scale fire experiments (scale 1:4) conducted with a freight truck commodity without roof over the piles of wooden pallets. Two different methods are presented which are based on physical relations for fire spread between the piles of wooden pallets. The first method uses a critical heat flux as ignition criteria while the other method uses an ignition temperature. The method using the critical heat flux as ignition criteria shows very good agreement with the corresponding experimental results used. The method using the ignition temperature as ignition criteria did not agree well with the corresponding experimental results. The prerequisite that the burning objects should not necessarily have to be positioned at equal distance was fulfilled.

National Category
Other Engineering and Technologies
Research subject
Energy- and Environmental Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-11305 (URN)10.1016/j.firesaf.2012.03.007 (DOI)000307132800001 ()2-s2.0-84860509088 (Scopus ID)
Projects
GRUVAN
Available from: 2011-01-04 Created: 2011-01-04 Last updated: 2017-09-27Bibliographically approved
6. Heat release rate measurements of burning mining vehicles in an underground mine
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Heat release rate measurements of burning mining vehicles in an underground mine
2013 (English)In: Fire safety journal, ISSN 0379-7112, E-ISSN 1873-7226, Vol. 61, p. 12-25Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Heat release rates from two full-scale fire experiments with mining vehicles in an underground mine are presented. The mining vehicles involved were a wheel loader and a drilling rig typical for mining operations. The calculated peak heat release rate of the loader was 15.9 MW and occurred after approximately 11 min from ignition. The calculated peak heat release rate of the drilling rig was 29.4 MW and occurred after approximately 21 min from ignition. The heat release rate was calculated from measured data of gas concentrations of oxygen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, measured gas velocity and measured gas temperatures. The fuel load of the wheel loader consisted mainly of the tyres, the hydraulic oil and the diesel fuel. The fuel load of the drilling rig consisted mainly of the hydraulic oil and the hydraulic hoses. The calculated heat release rate curves were controlled by comparing the summed up energy contents of the participating components with the integrated heat release rate curves. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords
Full-scale fire experiment, Heat release rate, Mining vehicle, Underground mine
National Category
Engineering and Technology Energy Engineering
Research subject
Energy- and Environmental Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-21441 (URN)10.1016/j.firesaf.2013.08.009 (DOI)000327365700002 ()2-s2.0-84883339568 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2013-09-13 Created: 2013-09-13 Last updated: 2017-12-06Bibliographically approved

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