Online Evaluation of Underground Mine Atmosphere and Scope of Application of WSN - A Case Study

Abstract

This paper presents overview of proudres for evaluaiton of undergroudn mine atmosphere in thick seams extracted by Blasting Gallery (BG) method of underground mining. After few years of discontinuance of blasting gallery method due to spontaneous heating and loss of considerable coal in goaf, the mehtod was reintroduced in typical underground mine – GDK-11 of SCCL. Salient results of strata monitoring along with evaluaiton of goaf atmosphere are presented besides few cases of strata monitoring studied over three decades by the first author. A few ratios related to evaluation of goaf atmosphere shows Active Fire indicating the need of further evaluation of the ratios with meticulous monitoring of goaf atmosphere through various continuous gas real time monitoring systems including Wireless sensor communication systems for understanding the status of fire.