ABSTRACT
A calibrated and well-tuned ventilation network model plays a critical role in mine ventilation planning, optimization, and ventilation control. Moreover, it is critical to the mine fire simulation program as well since the fire simulation is built upon the mine ventilation model. The contaminants generated from a fire are transported by airflows throughout the mine ventilation system. The accuracy of the fire simulation results not only depends on the fire source model itself but also on the ventilation network model. This paper introduces an improved method to calibrate a ventilation network using continuous airflow monitoring and addresses the practical problems encountered while calibrating and tuning the ventilation network of the NIOSH Safety Research Coal Mine (SRCM) using continuously monitored airflow data. In this study, the fluctuation of the air velocity sensor readings is analyzed, and the sensor location correction factors are applied to obtain a more accurate average air velocity for the ventilation network calibration.
