Mine-wide Diesel Particulate Matter (DPM) Monitoring Applications

Diesel engine usage in mining operations contributes to high productivity. The downside is the exposure of workers to a mixture of gases and particulate contaminants in the working environment, a concern to occupational health and safety. DPM in the ventilation air is a critical pollutant adversely affecting the health of underground mine workers. DPM is considered a human carcinogen. This thesis presents a new way of characterizing DPM concentration in underground mines by the application of a new numerical modeling technique. The transport of DPM from diesel exhaust emission is modeled using a mine ventilation transport model with calibrated dispersion coefficients. The method focuses on mass balance, starting with the source term of the diesel engine estimated from tailpipe emission concentration and fuel consumption data. The source term is input to the DPM transport model to predict concentrations mine-wide, as well as in production zones. The proposed method is applied to an operating mining example. The model results are presented and compared with field measurement.