SIMULATING THE SENSITIVITY OF UNDERGROUND VENTILATION NETWORKS TO FLUCTUATING AMBIENT CONDITIONS

The weather directly impacts ventilation systems, especially large industrial systems found in underground mines. Underground mine ventilation systems have high cost implications that add to the financial strains and uncertainties of future mining operations. In addition, the dynamic nature of underground ventilation systems makes the accurate prediction of underground conditions extremely difficult using traditional steady-state methods. Therefore, improved prediction methods of dynamic underground environmental conditions are needed to ensure cost-effective ventilation systems. This paper investigates simulating the sensitivity that underground ventilation systems have to fluctuating ambient conditions. Simulation software was applied to a case study on a gold mine in South Africa. The results showed that transient software can now be applied to entire mine ventilation systems, and can improve predicting the underground environment because of fluctuating ambient conditions.