A Review of Primary Mine Ventilation System Optimization

Enrique I. Acuña () and Ian S. Lowndes ()
Additional contact information
Enrique I. Acuña: Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Aplicadas, Universidad de los Andes, Santiago 7620001, Chile; and Proyecto Nuevo Nivel Mina, CODELCO, Santiago 8340518, Chile
Ian S. Lowndes: Manufacturing Division, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom

Interfaces, 2014, vol. 44, issue 2, 163-175

Abstract: Within the mining industry, a safe and economical mine ventilation system is an essential component of all underground mines. In recent years, research scientists and engineers have explored operations research methods to assist in the design and safe operation of primary mine ventilation systems. The main objective of these studies is to develop algorithms to identify the primary mine ventilation systems that minimize the fan power costs, including their working performance. The principal task is to identify the number, location, and duty of fans and regulators for installation within a defined ventilation network to distribute the required fresh airflow at minimum cost. The successful implementation of these methods may produce a computational design tool to aid mine planning and ventilation engineers. This paper presents a review of the results of a series of recent research studies that have explored the use of mathematical methods to determine the optimum design of primary mine ventilation systems relative to fan power costs.

Keywords: mine ventilation optimization; linear programming; nonlinear programming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/inte.2014.0736 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:orinte:v:44:y:2014:i:2:p:163-175

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Interfaces from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().