Development of an Integrated Dust Collector and Local Exhaust Ventilation System for Controlling Industrial Mine Dust

Abstract:

Dust control in an enclosed mine environment is a fundamental key to personnel safety for boosting personnel productivity and enhancing successful operation, hence the need to design a dust control equipment to meet this crucial requirement. A laboratory-scale local exhaust ventilating system for the control of airborne dust in an enclosed mine environment was designed and fabricated. The design was carried out by considering various design criteria required for a well-ventilated enclosed mine environment. Material selection of the components was done by taking into cognisance the physical characteristics of the targeted dust. The system designed was fabricated and then test-ran with dry dust laden air stream in order to determine its cleaning efficiency with respect to variation in fan speed and dust grain size. It was observed that the cleaning efficiency of the machine was high at a higher fan speed and low grain sizes. The cleaning efficiency ranged from (63.9-44.0)% for dust particle sizes ranging from (62.5-125) to (1000-2000) μm with a mean fan suction of 0.958Pa. Thus, with this system, improved cleaning of dry dust-laden enclosed mine workplace could be achieved with increased rate of suction of smaller particle-sized dust.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volume 824)
• Pages: 217-224
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.824.217
• Online since: September 2013
• Authors: E.O. Ifelola, D.J. Afu
• Keywords: Cleaning, Dust-Control, Exhaust, Mine, Safety, Ventilation System

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