Chapter 5
Main Ventilation
5.1 Introduction
Main ventilation, also termed primary ventilation, takes air from the outside atmosphere and distributes it to through the whole mine. It differs from secondary ventilation, also known as auxiliary or ancillary ventilation, which will be discussed later
in Chap. 8, in that secondary ventilation takes air from the main ventilation circuit
conducing it to specific areas of the mine, mainly developing zones such as faces
and stopes.
Main ventilation currents can be either natural or created by powerful fans. The
energy used in the main ventilation is so high that it can account for 40% of the
electrical energy consumed in the mine. For this reason, ventilation calculations are of
the utmost importance for the economy of the mine. Since the mine is a continuously
evolving system, so is the main ventilation, which must face new challenges every
day to adapt to changing environmental and circuit resistance conditions. In this
chapter, we deal with the main characteristics and calculations concerning primary
ventilation systems.
5.2 Mine Airflow Requirements
Among the main tasks of main ventilation we find:
• Bringing pure air in sufficient quantity to where it is required.
• Diluting, extracting or displacing toxic, asphyxiating and flammable gases.
• Diluting, extracting or displacing dust.
• Reducing or increasing as appropriate, the temperature and humidity of the mining
environment.
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
C. Sierra, Mine Ventilation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49803-0_5
161
Main Ventilation
5.1 Introduction
Main ventilation, also termed primary ventilation, takes air from the outside atmosphere and distributes it to through the whole mine. It differs from secondary ventilation, also known as auxiliary or ancillary ventilation, which will be discussed later
in Chap. 8, in that secondary ventilation takes air from the main ventilation circuit
conducing it to specific areas of the mine, mainly developing zones such as faces
and stopes.
Main ventilation currents can be either natural or created by powerful fans. The
energy used in the main ventilation is so high that it can account for 40% of the
electrical energy consumed in the mine. For this reason, ventilation calculations are of
the utmost importance for the economy of the mine. Since the mine is a continuously
evolving system, so is the main ventilation, which must face new challenges every
day to adapt to changing environmental and circuit resistance conditions. In this
chapter, we deal with the main characteristics and calculations concerning primary
ventilation systems.
5.2 Mine Airflow Requirements
Among the main tasks of main ventilation we find:
• Bringing pure air in sufficient quantity to where it is required.
• Diluting, extracting or displacing toxic, asphyxiating and flammable gases.
• Diluting, extracting or displacing dust.
• Reducing or increasing as appropriate, the temperature and humidity of the mining
environment.
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
C. Sierra, Mine Ventilation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49803-0_5
161