Mine fire diagnostics and implementation of water injection with fume exhaustion at Renton, PA
This paper reports on U.S. Bureau of Mines research to develop diagnostic methods to locate and evaluate fires in abandoned mines and waste banks and techniques to extinguish such fires that was applied to an abandoned 60-acre underground bituminous coal mine (Renton, Allegheny County, PA) to locate and extinguish three separated fire zones. Mine fire diagnostics interpret changes from baseline values in subsurface pressures, temperatures, and mine gas composition under imposed pressure gradients induced by a borehole exhaust fan. The effective gas-sampling area surrounding each borehole is greatly enlarged. Sampling iterations, using a communicating boreholes set, provide fire signature information for locating both heated and cold areas. Time-dependent monitoring differentiates heating and cooling periods resulting form combustion front movement and/or fire extinguishment activities. A water injection with fume exhaustion extinguishment effort involved injecting water through boreholes to quench the heated zones while exhaust fans actively removed heated gases from the mine. The technique was ineffective as implemented, primarily because of inadequate spreading of water from the injection points.
- Research Organization:
- Bureau of Mines, Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 6011018
- Report Number(s):
- RI-9363
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
012033* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Underground Mining-- Mine Environment-- (1987-)
012034 -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Underground Mining-- Automation
Monitoring
& Control-- (1987-)
016000 -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Health & Safety
ABANDONED SITES
BITUMINOUS COAL
BLACK COAL
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
COAL
COAL MINES
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
ENERGY SOURCES
FEDERAL REGION III
FIRE EXTINGUISHERS
FIRES
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GASES
MATERIALS
MINES
MINING
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NORTH AMERICA
ON-LINE MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS
ON-LINE SYSTEMS
PENNSYLVANIA
PRESSURE GRADIENTS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SAMPLING
UNDERGROUND FACILITIES
UNDERGROUND MINING
US BUREAU OF MINES
US DOI
US ORGANIZATIONS
USA