THE MODELLING OF FIRE SPREAD AND SUPPRESSION WITHIN UNDERGROUND MINE TUNNELS

Underground fires in deep coal mines are an ever present hazard to personnel and production. To initiate the safe evacuation of personnel and the salvage of the mine infrastructure requires the successful and timely detection of the seat and nature of the fire and the initiation of suitable fire fighting systems. In recent years, conveyor belt installations have been recorded as the predominant source of fires within deep UK coal mines. This paper reports the results of an experimental and computational study conducted to characterise the initiation and spread of fire along a conveyor belt within a ventilated full-scale experimental fire test gallery. A novel modelling method is proposed to represent the observed flame spread along the conveyo