Refuge chambers

Study on building permanent underground refuge chamber in Dayangquan Coal Mine... 

According to the general situation of Dayang-quan Coal Mine, the permanent refuge chamber will be constructed in No. 12 coal seam or No. 15 coal seam, which can resist damages caused by accidents of highly gassy mine, such as fire, explosion and outburst of gas. 

The refuge chamber shall not be arranged at places with potential safety hazards, such as substations, explosive magazines and oil storage facilities (Sun 2010). 

The refuge chamber shall be constructed in areas with stable surrounding rocks and shall be far away from places such as faults, which are liable to be affected by mining and geological activities (Mickey 2007). 

The refuge chamber shall be constructed by taking full use of existing chambers which are well supported, so as to reduce the construction cost and construction period (Yu et al. 2010). 

Figure 1. The site of the permanent refuge chamber at +630 mining level in No. 12 coal seam for 40 persons.

The surrounding areas exceed 1000 m were provided with moveable refuge chamber as the refuge space. Its length was enough for 30 mobile personnel in the roadway to avoid dangers. 

STUDY ON FUNCTIONAL STRUCTURE AND SCALE OF THE PERMANENT REFUGE CHAMBER... 

Study on basic function and structure of refuge chamber... 

Based on the risk factors of Dayangquan Coal Mine, the permanent refuge chamber of No. 12 coal seam has the functions such as high temperature resistance, shock resistance and air-tightness. The protection parameters are shown in Table 1 (Sui 2007). 

Based on relevant specifications and major functions of the chamber, the space of the permanent refuge chamber of Dayangquan Coal Mine was divided into the three areas (as shown in Fig. 2). 

Table 1. The protection parameters of the permanent refuge chamber of Dayangquan Coal Mine. 

Overall dimensions of the refuge chamber The overall dimensions of the permanent refuge chamber of Dayangquan Coal Mine were determined by total receiving capacity, equipment volume, safety factors of spatid size. 

As average air supply per capita shall not be less than 0.3 mVmin, the totd air supply of the refuge chamber should be determined as ... 

For the mine compressed air oxygen supply system, fresh air is transferred into the refuge chamber by the ground compressor and compressed air... 

Control system input oxygen went through the processes of depressurization, current stabilization and noise reduction. According to actual person number in the refuge chamber, a certain amount of oxygen was sent to the purification system. 

The fireproof anti-explosion airtight system of the refuge chamber was used to protect the chamber... 

Other systems were set in the refuge chamber for the basic survival needs. 

The air curtain isolation system was mounted above the entrance of external protective door of the permanent refuge chamber of Dayangquan Coal Mine. When refugees enter, an air curtain was formed by this system, and it could effectively prevent toxic gas from entering into the refuge chamber with refugees. 

The safety monitoring and control system which was mounted on the inside and outside of the refuge chamber of Dayangquan Coal Mine can monitor temperature, humidity and the changes of CO, COj Oj CH4 HjS and then transfer the data to ground control center so as to facilitate dispatching (Zhang 2005). 

The auxiliary systems of the permanent refuge chamber could meet basic survival needs of refugees, including lighting system, power system, water, food, sanitary installation, armamentarium, fire fighter and self-rescuer. 

Based on the analysis of the mine conditions, it was determined that the permanent refuge chamber would be located in the abandoned plane explosive magazine at h-630 mining level of No. 12 coal seam this option reduced construction period and cost. 

According to function demands of the refuge chamber, the space was separated into buffer area, emergency area and refuge area. 

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