A new simple methodology for evaluation of explosion risk in underground coal mines

The key objective of this paper is the presentation of a new risk assessment tool for underground coal mines based on a simplified semi-quantitative estimation and assessment method.In order to determine the risk of explosion of any work process or activity in underground coal mines it is necessary to assess the risk. The proposed method is based on a Risk Index obtained as a product of three factors: frequency of each individual scenario P_ucm, associated severity consequences C_ucm and exposure time to explosive atmospheres E_ucm. The influence of exposure time is usually not taken into account up to now. Moreover, the exposure to explosive atmospheres may affect factors of hazardous event probability as much as its consequences. There are many definitions of exposure to explosive atmospheres but in the case of underground coal mines the exposure is defined as frequency risk of firedamp and coal dust. The risk estimation and risk assessment are based on the developed of a risk matrix.The proposed methodology allows not only the estimation of the explosion risk but also gives an approach to decide if the proposal investment is well-justified or not in order to improve safety.     

Development of a relative risk model for roof and side fall fatal accidents in underground coal mines in India

A relative risk model for roof and side fall fatal accidents was developed using loglinear analysis of two-way contingency table. A few statistics such as potential fatalities (PF), relative risk of fatalities (RRF) and safety measure effectiveness (SME) were derived which can be used as key safety performance indicators of roof and side fall accidents in underground mines. The model was applied to large roof and side fall fatal accident data for a period of 6-years occurred in six companies involving 292 underground coal mines. The application reveals that effectiveness of safety measures across different locations in underground mines varies and focus is mainly concentrated in highly populated workplaces such as face. The model and the statistics developed in this study are generic and can be applied to any industrial setting.     

Trends and causes of fatalities in South African mines

Leger, J.-P., 1991. Trends and causes of fatalities in South African mines. Safety Science, 14: 169–185.The trends and principal causes of occupational fatalities and disasters (defined as six or more fatalities in one incident) in the South African mining industry are analysed. A miner who spends twenty years working underground faces a one in thirty chance of dying in an occupational accident. The gold mine fatality rate has improved only 33% since 1945, whereas in the coal mines it has declined substantially. Fatality rates in the diamond mines remain at levels similar to those of the 1920s. In other mineral mines the rate has increased since the 1930s. The most important cause of fatalities are falls of ground. In gold mines, rockbursts increase the fatality rate to three times the average at depths below 3000 m. Disasters remain a significant contributor to total fatalities, more disasters having occurred in the 1980s than in any other decade this century. In comparison with the accident experience of the United States, New South Wales, West Germany, India and Britain, countries with substantial coal mining industries, the South African underground colliery fatality rate is worse by factors ranging from two to eight times. Recommendations to ameliorate the high rate of fatalities include publication of improved accident statistics; elucidation of the relationship between injury rates and depth; identification of high risk occupations; special attention to be paid to the poor improvements in fatality rate trends for gold, diamond and other mineral mines; the establishment of an independent (government) deep level mining research institute; and more thorough investigations into disasters and analyses of disaster trends.     

Pilot sample risk analysis for underground coal mine fires and explosions using MSHA citation data

After three decades of sustained continuous improvement of mine safety performances in the US, mine disasters in 2006 and 2007 compromised an excellent record and presented new challenges and vulnerabilities for the underground coal mining industry. In the aftermath of the incidents, formal investigations and new scrutiny of mine safety by the US Congress and expert study groups followed. The US Congress passed the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006 (MINER Act), which mandated new laws to address the issues, including those related to mine fires and explosions from which miners must be protected. The National Mining Association-sponsored Mine Safety Technology and Training Commission report highlighted the role of risk analysis and management in identifying and controlling major hazards, such as fires and explosions. In this paper an approach is given for analyzing the risks for fires and explosions based on the Mine Safety and Health Administration citation database. Using 2006 citation data and focusing on subsystem failures, the methodology is applied to a database for a pilot sample of underground coal mines stratified by mine size and state.     

Applying Hierarchical Loglinear Models to Nonfatal Underground Coal Mine Accidents for Safety Management

Underground mining is considered to be one of the most dangerous industries and mining remains the most hazardous occupation. Categorical analysis of accident records may present valuable information for preventing accidents. In this study, hierarchical loglinear analysis was applied to occupational injuries that occurred in an underground coal mine. The main factors affecting the accidents were defined as occupation, area, reason, accident time and part of body affected. By considering subfactors of the main factors, multiway contingency tables were prepared and, thus, the probabilities that might affect nonfatal injuries were investigated. At the end of the study, important accident risk factors and job groups with a high probability of being exposed to those risk factors were determined. This article presents important information on decreasing the number accidents in underground coal mines.     

Factors associated with occupational injury severity in the New South Wales underground coal mining industry

The relationship between a large number of mine and mine worker characteristics and injury severity was examined using multiple regression techniques. The study was based on data extracted from the New South Wales (N.S.W.) Joint Coal Board's computer based accident/incident reporting system describing 21,372 non-fatal, lost-time injurious incidents that occurred in the N.S.W. underground coal mining industry during the 4 year period from 1 July 1986 to 30 June 1990. The number of days lost as a result of an injurious incident was the best available proxy measure of injury severity. Over the study period, the number of days lost per 100,000 tonnes of raw coal production declined by 73%. Over the same period, injurious incidents involving more than 20 days off work, which constituted only 16% of all injurious incidents in underground mines, resulted in 75% of the total days lost for the whole N.S.W. underground coal mining industry. Factors that had practical importance and that were significantly associated with injury severity included mine worker's age, part of the body injured, type of accident, agency of accident, and mine worker activity. Factors not important or not significant in their relationship with injury severity were: time into shift, previous hours worked, mine location of incident, occupation, work experience, frequency of task, shift, and mining region. This study suggests that factors related to the susceptibility of a mine worker's body tissue to damage or repair, and factors related to the concentration of energy on the mine worker by vehicle and environmental characteristics are important determinants of injury severity.     

煤矿巷道支护动态信息设计法

由于地下工程环境的复杂性和不确定性,采用的静态信息设计方法存在着明显的缺陷。因此,提出巷道支护动态信息设计法,其实施过程为:在地质调查和地质力学测试的基础上,采用数值模拟和工程类比相结合的方法进行初始设计;将初始设计实施于井下,并进行地质资料的现场再收集和工程监测;用监测结果检验和修正初始设计,按修正后的设计进行施工,并进行工程监测,如此不断循环,直至完工。该方法在煤炭行业获得成功,在金属矿山、交通、水利等岩土工程中有重要的推广价值。     

Experimental investigation of the pressure gradient of a new spiral mesh foam generator

Foam is used as part of an effective dust suppression method in underground coal mines, but conventional foaming devices severely restrict its popularization and application due to the high cost of foam preparation, poor applicability and high pressure loss. Therefore, a new spiral mesh foam generator is designed, and its performance is investigated and evaluated experimentally. The results show that the pressure gradient of the spiral mesh foam generator increases with the increase of foam concentration in water. There is a large pressure gradient gap between the top and bottom at both ends of the foam generator. However, the gap disappears and uniform foam is generated in the middle section of the foam generator. When the pressure gradient is higher than minimum pressure gradient, the foam production quantity will increase sharply. Based on the length of spiral mesh and operating conditions determined, the new foam generator is applied to produce foam for dust suppression in the heading face of coal mines. A good foaming effect, less pressure loss and high dust suppression efficiency suggest that the new foam generator will greatly promote the large-scale application of foam technology used to suppress dust in underground coal mines.     

Logistic regression model for prediction of roof fall risks in bord and pillar workings in coal mines: An approach

The roof fall hazards are the major problems in underground coal mines, which are generally unpredictable due to the associated uncertainties arising out of the complexity of geological conditions and variability in mining parameters. During the six year period, 1996–2001, 253 Indian coal miners lost their lives and 401 are seriously injured in 490 different roof fall accidents. In India, 32.7% of the total fatal injuries in coal sectors are due to roof fall in bord and pillar method of workings. This paper attempts to predict the severities of roof fall accidents based on some major contributing parameters using the binary logistic regression model. In total, 128 roof fall accidents for the last few years from five underground coal mines in India having bord and pillar method of working are analyzed for this study. The results revealed that wider gallery width is more prone to major and serious accidents than narrower gallery width. Thin seams are more amenable to major accidents in comparison to thick seams. Unsupported or partially supported roofs have higher risk for contributing major as well as serious accidents. Deep workings are more prone to major accidents as compared to shallow depth workings.     

瓦斯爆炸事故的混沌特性及其控制方法初探

我国煤炭地下开采占全部产量的 96 % ,含瓦斯煤层多 ,高瓦斯矿井和突出矿井占矿井总数的4 4 % ,由瓦斯引发的爆炸事故的伤亡人数占全部矿井事故伤亡总数的 6 5 %。针对我国煤矿安全生产的严峻形势 ,笔者在对瓦斯爆炸事故特性进行分析的基础上 ,应用混沌理论对瓦斯爆炸事故的风险以及控制方法进行初步探讨 ,初步建立了瓦斯爆炸事故混沌特性分析模型 ,对预防和控制瓦斯爆炸事故的发生 ,改善矿井安全生产状况具有指导意义。     

论煤矿安全长效机制中经济杠杆的作用

随着我国社会主义市场经济体制的进一步完善和国民经济的持续高速发展,安全生产也面临着新的挑战。在以煤炭生产为代表的高风险行业中建立“长久”而又“有效”的安全生产机制,必须坚持科学发展观,严格遵循经济规律,充分发挥经济杠杆作用。笔者结合我国煤矿安全生产的实际状况,从加强煤矿企业资本管理制度、实行煤炭资源有偿使用制度、建立税收优惠政策、强化煤矿安全保险制度、提高职工伤亡抚恤标准、推行煤矿负责人安全风险抵押金制度和实施煤炭行业人才培养体系改革等方面,提出了煤矿安全生产长效机制建设的新举措。     

非煤矿山地下开挖工程安全等级评定方法研究

非煤矿山地下工程开挖中经常发生意外伤亡事故,对其安全性评价尚缺较好的方法。笔者借鉴类似行业的评价方法并结合多年地下工程安全经验,综合应用国内外岩体力学研究和测试的成果,建立了针对非煤矿山地下开挖工程的安全分级体系。以“火灾、爆炸危险指数评价法”(DOW法)和岩体工程分类法为建立模型的基础,根据影响地下开挖工程主要因素及其权重分析,导出了具有针对性的危险性的评价指数,并据此将工程分为Ⅰ~Ⅴ五个安全等级。以该方法对白银公司小铁山矿高分段胶结充填采矿法某试验采场的安全性进行分级,其结果和施工实际较为接近,说明分级方法有一定普适性。     

Measuring mining safety with injury statistics: lost workdays as indicators of risk

PROBLEM: Mining in the United States remains one of the most hazardous industries, despite significant reductions in fatal injury rates over the last century. Coal mine fatality rates, for example, have dropped almost a thousand-fold since their peak in 1908. While incidence rates are very important indicators, lost worktime measures offer an alternative metric for evaluating job safety and health performance. The first objective of this study examined the distributions and summary statistics of all injuries reported to the Mine Safety and Health Administration from 1983 through 2004. Over the period studied (1983-2004), there were 31,515,368 lost workdays associated with mining injuries, for an equivalent of 5,700 person-years lost annually. The second objective addressed the problem of comparing safety program performance in mines for situations where denominator data were lacking. By examining the consequences of injuries, comparisons can be made between disparate operations without the need for denominators. Total risk in the form of lost workday sums can help to distinguish between lower- and higher-risk operations or time periods. METHOD: Our method was to use a beta distribution to model the losses and to compare underground coal mining to underground metal/nonmetal mining from 2000 to 2004. RESULTS: Our results showed the probability of an injury having 10 or more lost workdays was 0.52 for coal mine cases versus 0.35 for metal/nonmetal mine cases. In addition, a comparison of injuries involving continuous mining machines over 2001-2002 versus 2003-2004 showed that the ratio of average losses in the later period to those in the earlier period was approximately 1.08, suggesting increasing risks for such operations. DISCUSSION: This denominator-free safety measure will help the mining industry more effectively identify higher-risk operations and more realistically evaluate their safety improvement programs. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Attention to a variety of metrics concerning the performance of a job safety and health program will enhance industry's ability to manage these programs and reduce risk.     

Risk assessment: an approach to control hazards in mines

Accidents and injuries related to work are major occupational health problems in most of the industrialized countries.Traditional approaches to manage workplace safety in mines have mainly focused on job redesign and technical aspects of engineering systems.It is being realized that compliance to rules and regulations of mines is a prerequisite;however,it is not sufficient to achieve further reduction in accident and injury rates in mines.Proactive approaches are necessary to further improve the safety standards in mines.Unsafe conditions and practices in mines lead to a number of accidents,which in turn may cause loss and injury to human lives,damages to property,and loss of production.Hazard identification and risk assessment is an important task for the mining industry which needs to consider all the risk factors at workplaces.Applications of risk management approaches in mines are necessary to identify and quantify potential hazards and to suggest effective solutions.In this paper,the following risk estimation techniques were discussed:(i)DGMS(Directorate General of Mines Safety,India)risk rating criterion,and(ii)a matrix based approach.The proposed tools were demonstrated through an application in an opencast coal mine in India.It was inferred that the risk assessment approach can be used as an effective tool to indentify and control hazards in mines.     

Sources of underground CO: Crushing and ambient temperature oxidation of coal

As a harmful gas in underground coal mine, CO seriously threatened the safety of miners. Currently, the spontaneous combustion of residual coal in goaf is generally considered as the main source of underground CO. CO gas is also widely used as an indicator gas in fire prediction in mines. However, high concentrations of CO are also detected in some mines without spontaneous combustion of coal. Therefore, in the paper, with four ranks of coal, we studied other two potential CO sources: crushing and oxidation at ambient temperature. The more completely crushed coal produces more CO. The concentration of generated CO is inversely proportional to moisture content in coal. Therefore, the addition of water can inhibit the generation process of CO during the crushing process of coal. Lignite with low metamorphic grade can be oxidized to produce CO at ambient temperature (25 °C), and anthracite with high coal rank can be only oxidized to produce CO at 60 °C. Infrared spectra indicated that the coal with rich aliphatic hydrocarbons and oxygen-containing functional groups are more susceptible to oxidation at room temperature. Moreover, the smaller particle size of coal is more beneficial to the oxidation at ambient temperature to generate CO. CO generation during coal oxidation is also closely related to the ventilation rate.     

基于微型惯性传感器的井下人员跟踪定位系统*

为了解决当前煤矿井下使用的WIFI人员定位系统在煤矿井下复杂环境中受到干扰,造成使用精度误差等问题,研究并提出使用微型惯性传感器制作足部轨迹测量传感器,通过惯性轨迹测量算法计算并跟踪井下人员的移动轨迹。使用基于固定阈值的零速检测技术和基于Kalman滤波的零速校正技术估计并校正由于系统长期工作造成的偏移误差。通过实验证明采用微型惯性传感器能够在不依赖于外部传感器的情况下对人员轨迹实现测量跟踪,Kalman滤波的应用能够减少惯性轨迹测量系统造成的长期漂移误差,可避免井下复杂工作环境对定位造成的干扰。     

Risk and mitigation of self-heating and spontaneous combustion in underground coal storage

While the self-heating and spontaneous combustion of coal is a known challenge at coal mines and storage sites, there are known methods for mitigating this challenge for typical open stockpile storage. However, closing the storage will reduce access for corrective action, and it is then important to manage the storage and its transport system with added attention without unduly adding cost or hindering availability. This paper aims to discuss the risk, prevention and extinguishing of fires in closed coal storage facilities, particularly in light of the experience with the Salmisaari underground rock storage facility in Finland. The observed autoignition events have indicated an array of contributing factors, some of which are unique to underground silo storage facilities. On the other hand, many features of the storage facilities can be compared with other extant closed storage systems. The factors affecting fire risk are described and the associated fault and event trees are outlined for autoignition at underground storage. Drawing upon the experiences with past events of self-heating and spontaneous combustion, recommendations are given on cost-effective preventive, corrective and other mitigating action for minimising fire risk and promoting storage availability.     

应用数值模拟技术评价矿山地压灾害

在国内外矿山安全评价领域内,主要以矿山概率风险评价为基础的评价技术,把矿井生产系统中隐患导致事故的概率与隐患造成的损害乘积作为系统状态危险度。隐患发生的概率和造成的损害是通过数据统计获得。该评价方法对隐患发生的概率和损害统计不够规范,缺乏实用性,且只讨论了采用数据的模糊性问题[1]。近年来兴起的数值模拟技术是基于可视化计算软件的一种岩石破裂过程分析方法。笔者提出了用计算机模拟技术进行矿山开采过程中的安全评价新方法,该方法应用材料相似性原理,通过计算机数值模拟,解决针对矿山开采过程中采场结构参数优化、矿柱受力破坏形式、部位、范围及合理性评价等有关地压危害方面的难题。     

Ignition of methane–air mixtures by laser heated small particles

Optical technologies have progressed rapidly in the past 15 years. One application of laser technology in underground coal mines currently under evaluation is the remote measurement of explosive methane gas. Federal regulations require that atmospheric monitoring systems used in gassy underground mines where permissible equipment is required shall be intrinsically safe. Mine Safety and Health Administration criteria for the evaluation and testing of intrinsically safe apparatus and associated apparatus contain no specific guidance for optoelectronic components such as diode lasers. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is conducting a study to help provide a scientific basis for developing appropriate safety guidelines for optical equipment in underground coal mines. Results of experiments involving ignition of methane–air mixtures by collections of small heated particles of Pittsburgh seam coal and black iron oxide are reported. The inert but more strongly absorbing iron oxide targets consistently ignited methane–air mixtures at lower powers than the coal targets. Minimum observed igniting powers for laser energy delivered by 200, 400 and 800 μm core fiber optic cables and directed onto iron oxide targets in methane–air atmospheres were 0.6, 1.1, and 2.2 W, respectively. Comparisons with the results of other researchers are made. A thermal layer theoretical approach to describing the process is included as an appendix.     

A methodology for evaluation and monitoring of recurring hazards in underground coal mining

This study provides a methodology for evaluation and monitoring of recurring hazards in underground coal mining. An important measure in this regard may be the ‘time between occurrences’ (TBO) of hazards that can be modeled in the similar fashion of ‘time between failures’ (TBF) data modeling which is practiced in reliability study. Typically, time between accidents is modeled in safety study. This study is therefore new in two counts: (i) statistically modeling hazard occurrences based on inspection reports and (ii) monitoring of safety status based on control charting of hazard occurrences. The methodology includes Weibull-distribution based hazard rate functions, Poisson-distribution based cumulative risk functions, and Weibull-distribution based control charts. The new methodology is applied to an underground coal mining worksystem and the results are discussed. The case study results show that hazards related to machinery, ground-fall, housekeeping, roadways, and materials are more frequently occurring. It is recommended that in addition to planned inspections for identification of hazards, a control chart based hazard mitigation scheme should be employed at the mine sections for better monitoring and control of hazards.