Optimal control on underground mine fire

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:6683024

Zhou, Xinquan

This dissertation presents the application of optimal control theory, large-scale system control, and modern control theory on direct quantitative control for the stabilization of ventilation systems in the event of a mine fire. This problem, the stabilization of a ventilation system, is in fact, a dynamic optimization problem with the mathematical model of the ventilation system serving as the constraint condition. The cost function for the optimization problem is selected to force the airflow distribution back to a desired and safe state rather than being used to achieve an energy saving. The dynamic control of a ventilation system during a mine fire turns out to be a tracking problem which is applied to achieve the desired state by applying optimal control theory. With the aid of these theories, the stabilization of a ventilation network, which is considered a large nonlinear system, is achieved by the interaction prediction approach in the hierarchical control method. A computer program (CTFIRE) consisting of two parts, the transient state simulation followed by the optimal control part, has been developed to achieve the computation of parameters necessary for stabilizing a ventilation system in the event of a mine fire. By installing control devices in some airways and varying their pressure drop (gain), the state of a ventilation system, which occurs at some time after a fire break out and has what can be described as a hazardous airflow distribution, can be restored to the normal airflow distribution (the state prior to the break out of the fire) or other desired airflow distribution. This dissertation provides a significant first step toward the automatic control of mine ventilation system during a mine fire.

• Research Organization: Michigan Technological Univ., Houghton, MI (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6683024
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
012033 -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Underground Mining-- Mine Environment-- (1987-)
016000* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Health & Safety
AIR FLOW
AUTOMATION
C CODES
COMPUTER CALCULATIONS
COMPUTER CODES
CONTROL
CONTROL SYSTEMS
FIRE FIGHTING
FIRES
FLUID FLOW
GAS FLOW
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MINING
OPTIMIZATION
PRESSURE DROP
PROCESS CONTROL
STABILIZATION
TRANSIENTS
UNDERGROUND MINING
VENTILATION SYSTEMS