CHAPTER 11:
2 CHECK CURTAINS AND LINE
Auxiliary Ventilation and Controlled
Recirculation
ALBAYALDE, MAMARIL, PAYUMO
11.1 IMPORTANCE OF FACE AND
AUXILIARY VENTILATION
◂ The ventilation of working faces in
underground mines is one of the most
important tasks of the mine ventilation
engineer because it is at the face that the
ventilating air performs its most useful
functions.
◂ Face ventilation can be a normal extension of
the main ventilation system. However, the
primary system is not ideally suited for
ventilation of dead-end openings.
◂ Because of this, reliance is placed often on
supplemental means of supplying air to
working faces. The practice of augmenting
the main ventilation system is termed
auxiliary ventilation.
2 Applications of Auxiliary Ventilation:
1. To ventilate dead-end workings
◂ most common application of auxiliary
ventilation
2. To provide supplemental flow to
assist the main ventilation system
◂ as in booster ventilation or in controlled
recirculation
Auxiliary ventilation is employed both
in coal and metal mining, for both
development and exploitation.
◂ In coal mining, face ventilation is a
critical task of the ventilation system that
ensures that methane is swept away from
the face and that dust is diluted or carried
away. The ventilation system must offer
sufficient airflow at the face to
accomplish both of these objectives.
11.
BRATTICE
Brattice and curtain
◂ Mining terms that refer to partitions to
separate airways into intake and return splits.
◂ It should be resistant to tearing and other
abuse, have a low flame-spread index, and be
relatively leakproof and inexpensive.
*In coal mines, brattice is commonly used to
control the airflow in the working section
and to direct the air to each active mining
face.
11.3 AUXILIARY FANS AND VENT
PIPE OR TUBING
Internally driven axial-flow fans
◂ are popular because of their compactness
and adaptability to arrangement in series.
This series capability is one primary
advantage of auxiliary fans that allows them
to be used in many underground workings
where the faces to be ventilated are far from
the main ventilation air source.
Collapsible vent tubings are often
referred to as "bags" in the mines.
◂ Typically, fans and tubing are more expensive
but ensure less leakage than brattice. Always
more popular in metal mines, fans and tubing
are displacing brattice in coal mines. Both
blowing and exhaust auxiliary ventilation
systems are in common use with dust- and
gas-control characteristics similar to brattice
systems.
◂ One advantage of fan systems is that they
supplement the head of the primary fan,
resulting in added total flow quantities when
compared with brattice face ventilation
systems.
11.4 OTHER OPTIONS FOR FACE AND 11.5 EQUIPMENT SELECTION AND
AUXILIARY VENTILATION SYSTEMS DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

1. Jet Fans 1. Compliance with Company Rules and Government

Regulations
◂ are used as free-standing air movers to
provide for the mixing of fresh air at a given - a number of considerations may be important here,
working face. including noise, state and federal regulations on
auxiliary fans, and whether strata gases may be
2. Injectors encountered. Noise associated with a blowing system
is generally more of a problem than with an exhaust
◂ often called static air movers because they
system.
have no moving parts
2. Efficiency of the System
◂ An injector is powered by compressed air
and is used mostly in noncoal mines as a - an auxiliary fan always requires power, and this
means of providing good flows of air at the power adds to the overall costs of operating the
working face. ventilation system. If the fans are to be operated
continuously during production, the efficiency of the
3. Diffusers
fans should be considered.
◂ are small fans used to provide fresh air and
3. Standardization of Equipment
mixing at the working face.
- a mine that uses auxiliary fans may wish to
4. Scrubbers
standardize the duct types and sizes and the models
◂ are primarily dust control devices. of fans utilized to reduce the inventory of equipment
and to allow for easy design of new installations.
5. Sprayfans Standardization also helps to ensure that equipment
and spare parts are available when needed.
◂ are water sprays that move air by
entrainment. 4. Interface with Other Ventilation Circuits in the
Mine
6. Push-Pull Systems
- the designer must keep in mind the possible effects
◂ use both blowing and exhaust elements. that auxiliary ventilation systems will have on the
other ventilation circuits in the mine. It may be
7. Combination Systems
desirable to add doors, stoppings, brattices, or other
ventilation control devices to ensure that ventilation
◂ combinations of techniques, providing
ventilation to one or more working faces. is suitable both while the auxiliary fan is operating and
when it is not operating.

5. Leakage, Return Air, and Compressibility

Considerations

- when designing longer ventilation pipe or tubing

installations, it may be necessary to consider leakage,
head losses in the return airflow, and the
compressibility effect in the tubing. These effects are
generally ignored in shorter tubing systems but may
be significant as the length of tubing increases.
11.6 BOOSTER VENTILATION
The use of booster fans underground to handle only
a portion of the total air circulated and to supplement
the primary fan is a category of auxiliary ventilation
properly termed booster ventilation.
Booster fans have been widely employed in noncoal
mines; but they are not permitted in U.S. coal mines.
Where permitted, booster fans may be used
effectively on high-resistance splits to reduce the
overall head loss across a parallel circuit that the
primary fan must overcome.
There are three ways in which desired
quantities of air may be distributed to
branches of a parallel circuit having unequal
head losses across all the branches
- controlled splitting using regulators in the low-
resistance split(s) to balance the circuit.
- controlled splitting using booster fan(s) on the high-
resistance split(s) to create a balance.
- free splitting achieved by decreasing K, O, or L or by
increasing A or the number of airways in the high-
resistance split to balance the pressure drops. On the
basis of economical operating cost, they are listed in
order of increasing preference.
11.7 CONTROLLED RECIRCULATION
Recirculation Logic
 Recirculation - as the movement of mine
ventilation air past the same point more than
once (Jones, 1987).
 In essence, recirculation is a specific form of
reuse where air is used to ventilate the same
face or same mining district more than once
as it traverses through the mine.
 Controlled recirculation is a term that is
used for a recirculation circuit that is
purposefully designed and utilized in a
controlled fashion to provide some
ventilation benefits without adversely
affecting other ventilation variables.
The use of controlled recirculation circuits is
considered to be beneficial in mines where
1 Mine intake air must be heated because
of cold climates.
2 Mine air is refrigerated for reasons of
comfort or productivity.
3 Added velocity at the face would result
in better turbulent mixing of air and
methane at the point of release.
4 Added velocity at the face would more
effectively carry away dusts.
5 Working face are far removed from the
mine portals, such as in
undersea mining.
It is necessary to have an underground energy source
in recirculation circuit in an underground mine.
Potential recirculation circuits can therefore occur
where booster fans, auxiliary fans, and scrubbers are
used.
To consider the effects of a recirculation circuit, refer
to the two mine-ventilation diagrams shown where
the contaminant is assumed to be a point-source
strata gas introduced under steady-state conditions.
Disadvantages
o The introduction of contamination into the
face intake via the recirculated air quantity.
o The booster fan or fans used to generate the
recirculation quantity might not operate. The
air can short-circuit through the
recirculation crosscut.
o Any fire or other carbon monoxide-
generation activity between the working face
and point B will result in CO in the face area
if the recirculation crosscut is not
monitored.
 The following procedures should be
observed in the implementation of a
recirculation circuit:
1. A recirculation circuit should be
implemented only to increase the intake
quantity, not replace it.
2. If contamination of the intake air by means of
the recirculation quantity is unacceptable,
recirculation should not be used.
3. A door system that closes automatically
when the recirculation fans are not operating
should be used in the recirculation crosscut.
This prevents short-circuiting of the
ventilation quantity through the crosscut.
4. A CO monitoring system should be utilized
in the recirculation crosscut to terminate the
recirculation process and close the
recirculation doors if CO is detected. This
will keep CO from being swept into the
working face or district if it is generated
anywhere in the return.
In summary, a recirculation circuit should be used
only if it solves more environmental problems
than it creates and only if the level of safety is
improved as a result of the recirculation circuit.
FAN REQUIREMENTS
When fans are placed in a mine ventilation circuit to
produce a desired recirculation quantity, they become
a part of the recirculation subsystem. As a result of
the heads developed by the booster fans, the main
mine ventilation fans and the distribution of air
through the remainder of the mine will be affected.
The effect on the remaining part of the mine may be
quite small, but it needs to be considered to establish
the recirculation circuit without undesirable effects
elsewhere.
Auxiliary Fan-Scrubber Recirculation
Neither auxiliary fans nor scrubbers are normally
designed to produce recirculation of ventilating air at
the face.
However, they are capable of doing so if the fan that
is used is powerful enough to overcome the localized
effects of the main ventilation current or if other
aspects of their use enhance the tendency toward
recirculation.
However, this recirculation will not increase the
maximum contamination level that occurs in the
return. The analysis of the contamination levels is
similar to that for recirculation circuits.
Regulations on Recirculation
During most of recent history in coal mining
countries, recirculation has been prohibited in coal
mines. However, use of district recirculation is often
approved as an exception to normal practice in coal
mines in Great Britain. Much of the modern activity in
testing actual recirculation circuits has been
performed there, mainly in response to the difficult
ventilation conditions in undersea mines.
The practice of recirculation in coal mines in Great
Britain has been judged to be satisfactory by the
regulatory authorities (Mitchell, 1990a). This, coupled
with theoretical analyses, should encourage more
applications of controlled recirculation in the future in
coal mines. However, this trend to allow recirculation
in coal mines has not yet spread to the United States,
where both booster fans and controlled recirculation
circuits are presently prohibited.
The use of recirculation circuits in metal and nonmetal
mines is more common, with many applications arising
because of the extensive addition of heat to or
removal of heat from the mine airstream. As these
applications are more carefully scrutinized, controlled
recirculation may become a more versatile and
effective tool for mine ventilation in the future.