| Mine planning with diesel-powered equipment encompasses many fields such as production, mine ventilation, material transport, exhaust gas and particulate analysis, engine testing and approval, and mine atmospheric monitoring. Ventilation requirements and system structure can only be defined on the basis of a production plan. However, the iterative and feedback nature of this process must be noted since production planning must consider the services required to support the operation. Therefore, it is recognized that mathematical models of the production system, exhaust air quality and engine exhaust transport will serve as integral links in the ventilation planning with diesel-powered equipment.; Mathematical models are formulated to evaluate diesel-powered equipment deployment schemes as to their potential as contaminant sources. In the models the sources change both in space and time axes as a function of engine duty cycle. The models take into account little or considerable leakage in the roadway and describe the transport of diesel generated exhaust gases. The models are dynamic, second order accurate in space axis, consistent, and unconditionally stable.; To illustrate the use of the models to analyze diesel-powered equipment deployment schemes in a room-and-pillar mining system, several planning exercises are carried out to evaluate the impact of diesel exhaust at the face, in the section, and in the ventilation network. The methodology described in this thesis will permit determination of optimum deployment schemes, predict the effects of diesel exhaust in mine air in either existing or new mine designs, and be useful to design and analyze effective mine ventilation plans. |
