NIOSHTIC-2 No. 20030327


Fire-Generated Smoke Rollback Through Crosscut from Return to Intake - Experimental and CFD Study

June 2006

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Two mine fire experiments were conducted in the NIOSH Pittsburgh Research Laboratorys Safety Research Coal Mine that demonstrated that smoke from diesel-fuel fires of 500- and 660-kW heat-release rates in a return airway can develop, without causing a complete airflow reversal, into a roof layer that can migrate upwind, forming a counterflow to the primary airflow in a crosscut. Subsequently, smoke can penetrate into an intake airway and create a hazardous atmosphere in the intake airway upwind from the fire. Visibility conditions less than 13 m were created by the smoke in the intake airway downwind from the crosscut. Modeling of the event with a three-dimensional, time-dependent, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) program correctly represented the smoke movement.

Author(s):Friel-GF, Yuan-L, Edwards-JC, Franks-RA
Reference:Proceedings of the 11th U.S./North American Mine Ventilation Symposium, University Park, Pennsylvania, June 5-7, 2006. Mutmansky JM, Ramani RV. eds., London, U.K.: Taylor & Francis Group, 2006 Jun; :483-489

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Page last updated: September 17, 2008
Content Source: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Mining Division