Citation

Harteis SP, Litton CD, Thomas RA. Min. Eng. 2016; 68(1): 40-45.

Affiliation

Lead mining engineer, research physicist and electronics technician, respectively, at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration)

DOI

10.19150/me.6422

PMID

26877552

PMCID

PMC4750104

Abstract

The objective of this study was to develop a laboratory-scale method to rank the ignition and fire hazards of commonly used underground mine materials and to eliminate the need for the expensive large-scale tests that are currently being used. A radiant-panel apparatus was used to determine the materials' relevant thermal characteristics: time to ignition, critical heat flux for ignition, heat of gasification, and mass-loss rate. Three thermal parameters, TRP, TP1 and TP4, were derived from the data, then developed and subsequently used to rank the combined ignition and fire hazards of the combustible materials from low hazard to high hazard. The results compared favorably with the thermal and ignition hazards of similar materials reported in the literature and support this approach as a simpler one for quantifying these combustible hazards.

Language: en