Automated ventilation control in mines. Challenges, state of the art, areas for improvement

The article is divided into three main parts. The first part provides an overview of the existing literature on theoretical methods for calculating the optimal air distribution in mines according to the criteria of energy efficiency and providing all sections of mines with the required amount of air. It is shown that by the current moment there are many different formulations of the problem of searching the optimal air distribution, many different approaches and methods for optimizing air distribution have been developed. The case of a single (main) fan is most fully investigated, while for many fans a number of issues still remain unresolved. The second part is devoted to the review of existing methods and examples of the automated mine ventilation control systems implementation in Russia and abroad. Two of the most well-known concepts for the development of such systems are automated ventilation control systems (AVCS) in Russia and the CIS countries and Ventilation on demand (VOD) abroad. The main strategies of ventilation management in the framework of the AVCS and VOD concepts are described and also the key differences between them are shown. One of the key differences between AVCS and VOD today is the automatic determination of the operation parameters of fan units and ventilation doors using the optimal control algorithm, which is an integral part of the AVCS. The third part of the article describes the optimal control algorithm developed by the team of the Mining Institute of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences with the participation of the authors of the article. In this algorithm, the search for optimal air distribution is carried out by the system in a fully automated mode in real time using algorithms programmed into the microcontrollers of fans and ventilation doors. Minimization of energy consumption is achieved due to the most efficient selection of the fan speed and the rate of ventilation doors opening and also due to the air distribution shift control and the partial air recirculation systems introduction. It is noted that currently the available literature poorly covers the issue related to emergency operation modes ventilation systems of mines and also with the adaptation of automated control systems to different mining methods. According to the authors, further development of automated ventilation control systems should be carried out, in particular, in these two areas

Study of aero- and thermodynamic processes occurring on the first stage of the cross-ventilation creation in mine

This article presents the study of transient processes occurring in the mine ventilation network of Usolskii potash plant during pit bottom`s construction after completion of sinking cross slit between shafts in the cold season. Parameters of aero- and thermodynamic processes that influence the organization of through stream in the construction of the mine with the central ventilation scheme are determined. Within the one-dimensional formulation based on Kirchhoff's laws a mathematical model of air flow based on time-varying effect of natural draft was constructed taking into account the inertia of the air. A comparison of data obtained in the one-dimensional formulation was conducted with the results of numerical modeling of three-dimensional air flow with different thermodynamic parameters in complex software ANSYS. The numerical calculation was made using the model of a perfect gas, k-ε-turbulence model with wall functions which had an additional term to account for the roughness of the walls. The comparative analysis showed solutions compliance in one-dimensional formulation and three-dimensional numerical simulation for an initial period of time and after the establishment of stationary air distribution. In the period of time characterized by the transition from the peak airflow to its steady-state value, there is a significant mismatch of studied variables over time. Predicting the time of transient processes in mine ventilation system after sinking cross slit between shafts should be implemented on the base of calculations carried out using methods of computational fluid and gas dynamics. Calculation of peak values and stationary parameters of aero- and thermodynamic processes for development of technical solutions for the organization of ventilation`s design schemes may be carried out in the framework of one-dimensional setting

Landslide basal friction as measured by seismic waves

Dynamical predictions of landslide runout require measurements of the basal friction. Here we present the first seismically determined bounds on the frictional coefficients for three large volcanic landslides. The three landslides (Bezymianny, Russia 1956, Sheveluch, Russia 1964 and Mount St. Helens, USA 1980) have masses that vary by a factor of 5 and were all followed immediately by eruptions. We use teleseismic and regional seismic data to show that all three landslides are consistent with an apparent coefficient of friction of 0.2 which corresponds to an actual areally-averaged frictional coefficient of 0.2–0.6. The apparent friction is independent of the quantity of hot gas subsequently released

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Search for heavy resonances decaying to two Higgs bosons in final states containing four b quarks

A search is presented for narrow heavy resonances X decaying into pairs of Higgs bosons (H) in proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at root s = 8 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb(-1). The search considers HH resonances with masses between 1 and 3 TeV, having final states of two b quark pairs. Each Higgs boson is produced with large momentum, and the hadronization products of the pair of b quarks can usually be reconstructed as single large jets. The background from multijet and t (t) over bar events is significantly reduced by applying requirements related to the flavor of the jet, its mass, and its substructure. The signal would be identified as a peak on top of the dijet invariant mass spectrum of the remaining background events. No evidence is observed for such a signal. Upper limits obtained at 95 confidence level for the product of the production cross section and branching fraction sigma(gg -> X) B(X -> HH -> b (b) over barb (b) over bar) range from 10 to 1.5 fb for the mass of X from 1.15 to 2.0 TeV, significantly extending previous searches. For a warped extra dimension theory with amass scale Lambda(R) = 1 TeV, the data exclude radion scalar masses between 1.15 and 1.55 TeV

Search for supersymmetry in events with one lepton and multiple jets in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

Peer reviewe

Measurement of the top quark forward-backward production asymmetry and the anomalous chromoelectric and chromomagnetic moments in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV

Abstract The parton-level top quark (t) forward-backward asymmetry and the anomalous chromoelectric (d̂ t) and chromomagnetic (μ̂ t) moments have been measured using LHC pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected in the CMS detector in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1. The linearized variable AFB(1) is used to approximate the asymmetry. Candidate t t ¯ events decaying to a muon or electron and jets in final states with low and high Lorentz boosts are selected and reconstructed using a fit of the kinematic distributions of the decay products to those expected for t t ¯ final states. The values found for the parameters are AFB(1)=0.048−0.087+0.095(stat)−0.029+0.020(syst),μ̂t=−0.024−0.009+0.013(stat)−0.011+0.016(syst), and a limit is placed on the magnitude of | d̂ t| < 0.03 at 95% confidence level. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

Measurement of t(t)over-bar normalised multi-differential cross sections in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV, and simultaneous determination of the strong coupling strength, top quark pole mass, and parton distribution functions

Peer reviewe

Search for Physics beyond the Standard Model in Events with Overlapping Photons and Jets

Results are reported from a search for new particles that decay into a photon and two gluons, in events with jets. Novel jet substructure techniques are developed that allow photons to be identified in an environment densely populated with hadrons. The analyzed proton-proton collision data were collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in 2016 at root s = 13 TeV, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1). The spectra of total transverse hadronic energy of candidate events are examined for deviations from the standard model predictions. No statistically significant excess is observed over the expected background. The first cross section limits on new physics processes resulting in such events are set. The results are interpreted as upper limits on the rate of gluino pair production, utilizing a simplified stealth supersymmetry model. The excluded gluino masses extend up to 1.7 TeV, for a neutralino mass of 200 GeV and exceed previous mass constraints set by analyses targeting events with isolated photons.Peer reviewe