Development of Multi-Scale and Multi-physics Mathematical Model for Energy-Efficient Underground Mine Ventilation Design

地下采矿环境是危险的，因为有塌方、爆炸、缺乏可呼吸空气、热量、烟雾以及危险气体和灰尘的存在的风险。矿井通风、加热和冷却消耗大量能源。随着能源成本的增加和碳税的实施，节能通风系统以及可再生能源的使用在矿山中已成为采矿业可持续发展的高度期望。 近年来，数学建模在补充实验数据和辅助工程师设计通风、供暖和制冷方面发挥了重要作用。然而，由于在矿井中发现的各种传输现象的几何长度和时间尺度的巨大范围，这些模型通常被简化为仅考虑零维或一维网络，因此仅松散地表示局部水平上的场变量的行为。 本提案中描述的研究计划旨在产生新颖和创新的方法，以开发用于矿井通风和总空调的数学和数值框架，其主要目标有两个：第一个涉及多尺度和多物理通风以及湍流热，质量，动量，物质和颗粒转移，包括局部（矿的一小部分）和全局（整个矿）水平的多相流。将推导、校准、验证和确认三维通风模型，该模型能够捕捉所有尺度的基本物理和传输现象。将开发内部用户定义的子程序，以增强和修改软件的默认功能。第二个目标涉及矿井通风应用研究的发展和整合，包括新的设计和解决管理问题（气体、灰尘、柴油颗粒物、火灾、雾、氡等）。与现有的矿井通风规划软件相比，该软件具有更准确的模型预测，目标是规划、设计创新和优化采矿基础设施，以最大限度地提高安全性，最大限度地减少能源消耗，包括使用可再生能源，以减少碳足迹和成本。 该计划将通过两名博士和两名MEng学生的HQP培训进行，并在申请人的密切监督下进行。一个博士和一个工程硕士将在第一个目标工作，一个博士和一个工程硕士将在第二个目标工作。 拟议的研究在采矿业中很重要，因为加拿大的几个采矿业正计划进行超深开采，例如马尼托巴的汤普森矿和魁北克的拉隆德矿。他们面临着空气不足、中暑和高能耗的问题。因此，拟议的计划将帮助他们作为最终用户重新设计和改善其通风系统，包括加热/冷却，以实现最佳性能，节能和成本。

Underground mining environments are dangerous due to the risk of cave-ins, explosions, lack of breathable air, heat, fog and the presence of hazardous gases and dust. Mine ventilation, heating and cooling consumes significant amount of energy. With increase of energy costs, and implementation of carbon tax, an energy-efficient ventilation system together with the use of renewable energy in mine has become highly desirable for sustainability in mining industry. Mathematical modeling in recent years has play important role to complement experimental data and assist engineer on designing ventilation, heating and cooling. However, due to the vast range of geometrical length and time scales for various transport phenomena found in a mine, these models are usually simplified to only consider zero or one dimensional networks and thus only loosely represent the behaviour of the field variables on a local level. The research program described in this proposal aims to produce novel and innovative approaches to develop a mathematical and numerical framework for mine ventilation and total air-conditioning that serves two main objectives: the first involves the study of the fundamental aspects of the multi-scale and multi-physics ventilation and the associated transport of turbulent heat, mass, momentum, species and particulate transfer including multiphase flow for both local (small part of mine) and global (the whole mine) levels. Three-dimensional ventilation model which is able to capture essential physics and transport phenomena at all scales will be derived, calibrated, verified and validated. In-house user-defined subroutine will be developed to enhance and modify the default capability of the software. The second objective concerns the development and integration of applied research for mine ventilation, including novel designs and addressing management issues (gas, dust, diesel particulate matters, fire, fog, radon and so forth). With more accurate model prediction as compared to existing mine-ventilation-planning software, the goal is to plan, design innovate and optimize the mining infrastructure to maximize safety, minimize energy consumptions including use of renewable energy to reduce carbon footprint and costs. The program will be carried out through HQP training of two PhD and two MEng students under close supervision of the applicant. One PhD and one MEng will work on the first objective, and one PhD and one MEng will work on the 2nd objective. The proposed research is important in mining industry as several mining in Canada are planning to go for ultra-deep, eg Thompson mine in Manitoba and Laronde mine in Quebec. They are facing problem of insufficient air, heat stroke and high energy consumption. Thus, the proposed program will assist them as the end users to re-design and improve their ventilation system including heating/cooling for optimum performance, energy saving and cost.