Economic Based Optimisation of Australian Longwall Ventilation
Abstract
Through the analysis of current longwall ventilation practice, economic considerations were established and used to construct a generic economic longwall ventilation model. The purpose of this modelling is to identify and outline a framework from which to evaluate the costs of a ventilation network and to provide the basis for design optimisation. The economic investigation of longwall ventilation draws on previously established longwall ventilation methods set in the context of ventilation practices from North America, Europe and Australia. While establishing a path to achieve the long term goal of optimum longwall ventilation design many issues can be identified as having both fundamental design and economic implications. Some of these issues include gateroad development methods, sealing practices, labour utilisation, ventilation infrastructure, operational delay costing and consideration of alternate ventilation techniques such as booster fans and bleeder ventilation. These issues are considered in full as part of the established economic model. An equally important step in the modelling process is to evaluate and refine the established model particularly with respect to the identified issues. From this modelling previously established Australian longwall ventilation systems were evaluated and compared. These established case studies cover longwall ventilation methods utilising the U longwall ventilation approach with predominantly two heading gateroad development. The R longwall ventilation approach is also used in Australia to a lesser degree. This provides a method to evaluate successful alternative ventilation techniques in an Australian context. The modelling process can then be further utilised to identify, test and evaluate fundamentally new longwall ventilation models outside of current practice.
Recommended Citation
S. Gillies and T. I. Mayes, "Economic Based Optimisation of Australian Longwall Ventilation," Queensland Mining Industry Health and Safety Conference, Queensland Mining Industry, Aug 2002.
Department(s)
Mining Engineering
Sponsor(s)
Anglo Coal
Australian Government
Keywords and Phrases
Economic Considerations; Longwall Ventilation; Longwall Ventilation Model
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2002 Queensland Mining Industry, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Aug 2002
