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.