Mining Engineering Commons^™

Characterization Of Aerosols In An Underground Mine, Arash A. Habibi

Doctoral Dissertations

“Diesel-powered engines are a common source of submicron carbon-rich particles. Characterizing morphological and physical attributes of diesel agglomerates is therefore of great importance to be able to identify the source and improve removal technology. Size-segregated sampling was conducted in two phases of underground experiments. Scanning transmission electron microscopy and fast mobility particle sizers were used to determine the size distribution of agglomerates based on particle mobility and projected area diameter. Controlled zone sampling test results were used to determine the morphological characteristics of agglomerates for specific types of diesel equipment both with and without removal strategies. Changes in fractal dimension, …

Pressure Versus Impulse Graph For Blast-Induced Traumatic Brain Injury And Correlation To Observable Blast Injuries, Barbara Rutter

Doctoral Dissertations

"With the increased use of explosive devices in combat, blast induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) has become one of the signature wounds in current conflicts. Animal studies have been conducted to understand the mechanisms in the brain and a pressure versus time graph has been produced. However, the role of impulse in bTBIs has not been thoroughly investigated for animals or human beings.

This research proposes a new method of presenting bTBI data by using a pressure versus impulse (P-I) graph. P-I graphs have been found useful in presenting lung lethality regions and building damage thresholds. To present the animal …

Investigating Blast Fume Propagation, Concentration And Clearance In Underground Mines Using Computational Fluid Dynamics (Cfd), Raymond Ninnang Tiile

Doctoral Dissertations

"Blasting activities using standard industry explosives is an essential component of underground hard rock mining operations. Blasting operations result in the release of noxious gases, presenting both safety and productivity threats. Overestimation of post-blast re-entry time results in production losses, while underestimation leads to injuries and fatalities. Research shows that most underground mines simply standardize post-blast re-entry times based on experiences and observations. Few underground mines use theoretical methods for calculating post-blast re-entry time. These theoretical methods, however, are unable to account for the variations in the blasting conditions. Literature review shows that: (i) there is currently no means of …

The Mechanics Of Precision Presplitting, Anthony Joseph Konya

Doctoral Dissertations

"Precision Presplitting is a widely used method of presplit blasting for the mining and construction industries. In recent years considerable effort has gone into the development of empirical equations based on field data to be able to better design the Precision Presplit for various rock types and structural environments. However, the most widely discussed theory about the mechanics of the presplit formation, that of shockwave collisions, does not appear to be applicable for this method of presplitting.

This research has disproven this theory based on insufficient magnitude of the shockwave from modeling with basic wave mechanics. Other authors have suggested …

Multi-Body Dynamic And Finite Element Modeling Of Ultra-Large Dump Truck - Haul Road Interactions For Machine Health And Haul Road Structural Integrity, Bruno Ayaga Kansake

Doctoral Dissertations

"Haul truck capacities have increased due to their economies of scale in large-scale surface mine production systems. Ultra-large trucks impose high dynamic loads on haul roads. The dynamic loads are exacerbated by road surface roughness and truck over-loading. The dynamic forces also subject trucks to high torsional stresses, which affect truck health. Current haul road response models are 2D and use static truckloads for low capacity trucks. Existing 3D models consider the road as a two-layer system. No models capture the truck dynamic effects on haul roads and predict strut pressures during haulage.

Lagrangian mechanics was used to formulate the …

The Behavior Of Suas Under Explosive Loading Conditions And Implications For Safe Operating Procedures, Ashok Em Sudhakar

Doctoral Dissertations

"Drones are increasingly being used for tasks previously unimagined and the beneficial uses are evolving. The United States Congress has envisioned the possible uses of drones for both combating and conveying explosive threats and other harmful and destructive activities. Congress' intent is reflected in new laws (2018) and policies (2019).

All civilian available Small Unmanned Aerial Systems sUASs (Drones), weighing less than 55 pounds, in the current market are not designed for operations in explosive environments. This first of a kind research focuses on further understanding of sUASs response to explosive loading and the public policy implications. This research measured …

Removal Of Antimony And Bismuth From Copper Electrorefining Electrolyte By Two Proprietary Solvent Extraction Extractants, Andrew Artzer

Masters Theses

"Antimony and bismuth are two of the most problematic impurities in copper electrorefining (ER). Because of this, much research has been done investigating the ways to remove them. Processes that are currently being used industrially include anode additions, liberators, ion exchange (IX), and solvent extraction (SX). Of these, liberators and anode additions are the most common while SX is the least, mostly being used for arsenic removal. There are other methods that have been evaluated, but are not in commercial use. These include the use of various electrolyte additives, and adsorbents such as bentonite clay and heavy metal sulfates.

Two …

Projectile Impact Effects On A 50 Psi Plug Type Coal Mine Seal, Bruce Albert Von Niederhäusern

Masters Theses

"The current lack of projectile damage criteria for mine seals is assessed to determine if criteria should be developed. Impact experiments were performed on a full-scale 50 psi mine seal to determine failure modes, dynamic stress state, and assess risk to existing operational mine seals. Test projectiles were selected from common underground coal mine items propelled by means of a black powder projectile generator. Projectile velocities attained in testing ranged from approximately 100 to 650 ft/s (30 to 200 m/s). Dynamic strain was measured on the non-impact face to derive the state of stress and estimate failure criteria. Penetration models …

Fundamental Mechanism Of Time Dependent Failure In Shale, Neel Gupta

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In underground coal mines, mining activity disturbs the natural equilibrium state of in-situ stresses. The induced and in-situ stresses deform the rockmass surrounding the mine openings. Primary roof supports impede the deformation of the rockmass overlying the entries. However, failure can occur in the bolted rockmass, causing fatalities and injuries. The rockmass failure is erratic, and its occurrence often varies from a few days to months and years after the opening of the entry. One of the often-neglected factors in this process is the effect of time on the stability of mine openings, which can often be observed in the …

Social Impacts Of Climate Change And Occupational Heat Stress And Adaptation Strategies Of Mining Workers In Ghana, Victor Fannam Nunfam

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Excessive heat exposure due to rising temperatures associated with climate change adversely affects workers’ health, safety, productivity, and psychosocial well-being in occupational settings. In the hot and tropical regions of developing countries, long hours of physically demanding work, coupled with inadequate adaptation policies to climate change, increases the occurrence of heat-related illnesses and injuries, and contributes to the loss of productive capacity, poor decision making, and other negative effects on the social well-being of workers.

Based on the theories of social impact assessment, risk assessment, adaptation and resilience planning, this study assesses the social impacts of climate change and occupational …

Monitoring The Impact Of Groundwater Pumping On Infrastructure Using Geographic Information System (Gis) And Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (Psi), Kirsten Deprekel, El Hachemi Bouali, Thomas Oommen

Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences Publications

Transportation infrastructure is critical for the advancement of society. Bridges are vital for an efficient transportation network. Bridges across the world undergo variable deformation/displacement due to the Earth’s dynamic processes. This displacement is caused by ground motion, which occurs from many natural and anthropogenic events. Events causing deformation include temperature fluctuation, subsidence, landslides, earthquakes, water/sea level variation, subsurface resource extraction, etc. Continual deformation may cause bridge failure, putting civilians at risk, if not managed properly. Monitoring bridge displacement, large and small, provides evidence of the state and health of the bridge. Traditionally, bridge monitoring has been executed through on-site surveys. …

Evaluation Of The 20 L Dust Explosibility Testing Chamber And Comparison To A Modified 38 L Vessel For Underground Coal, Robert Quentin Eades, Kyle A. Perry, Catherine E. Johnson, Jacob Miller

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The phenomenon of combustible dust explosions is present within many industries. Tests for explosibility of dust clouds per ASTM E1226 use a 20 L explosive chamber that places the combustible dust directly below the dispersion nozzle which generates a thorough mixture for testing purposes. However, in the underground coal mining industry, there are a number of geologic, mining, and regulatory factors that change the deposition scheme of combustible coal dust. This causes the atmosphere of a coal mine to have a variable rock dust-coal dust mixture at the time of ignition. To investigate the impact of this variable atmosphere, a …

Climbing The Crustal Ladder: Magma Storage-Depth Evolution During A Volcanic Flare-Up, Guilherme A. R. Gualda, Darren M. Gravley, Michelle Connor, Brooke Hollmann, Ayla S. Pamukcu, Florence Begue, Mark S. Ghiorso, Chad Deering

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Very large eruptions (>50 km³) and supereruptions (>450 km³) reveal Earth’s capacity to produce and store enormous quantities (>1000 km³) of crystal-poor, eruptible magma in the shallow crust. We explore the interplay between crustal evolution and volcanism during a volcanic flare-up in the Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ, New Zealand) using a combination of quartz-feldspar-melt equilibration pressures and time scales of quartz crystallization. Over the course of the flare-up, crystallization depths became progressively shallower, showing the gradual conditioning of the crust. Yet, quartz crystallization times were invariably very short (<100 years), demonstrating that very large reservoirs of eruptible magma were transient crustal features. We conclude that the dynamic nature of the TVZ crust favored magma eruption over storage. Episodic tapping of eruptible magmas likely prevented a supereruption. Instead, multiple very large bodies of eruptible magma were assembled and erupted in decadal time scales.

An Evaluation Of The Deployment Of A Distributed Strain And Temperature (Dst) Fiber Optic Sensing System In An Underground Facility, Calvin Kammerer

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

In an effort to further mine safety and utilize the recent advances in fiber optic sensors’ distributed sensing capabilities, a research project at Montana Tech has deployed fiber optic sensors in an underground environment. The method of Brillouin scattering that has documented success in a mining environment will be used because it shows the greatest potential for detecting both temperature and strain in the deployed environment, as well as the ability to differentiate between the two. The primary objective of the Montana Tech research is to create a scenario where the distributed sensing technology can be evaluated for its sensing …

Rare Earth Elements Removal Techniques From Water/Wastewater: A Review, Omoniyi Pereao, Chris Bode-Aluko, Olanrewaju Fatoba, Katri Laatikainen, Leslie Petrik

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The rare-earth elements (REEs) remain very important due to the growing increase in their demand and for their critical and indispensable use in many high-tech industries today. This growing demand for REEs has led to an increased environmental exposure and water pollution from numerous REEs commercial products and as a result, the recovery of REEs is a significant issue that requires appropriate consideration. There are diverse and various strategic techniques available to remove metal ions from aqueous solutions, but nanofiber adsorbent appears to be quite innovative due to their outstanding characteristics such as cost effectiveness, flexibility, high surface area, porosity, …

Explosive Dust Test Vessel Comparison Using Pulverized Pittsburgh Coal, Jacob Miller, Jay Schafler, Phillip R. Mulligan, Robert Eades, Kyle A. Perry, Catherine E. Johnson

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Explosions of coal dust are a major safety concern within the coal mining industry. The explosion and subsequent fires caused by coal dust can result in significant property damage, loss of life in underground coal mines and damage to coal processing facilities. The United States Bureau of Mines conducted research on coal dust explosions until 1996 when it was dissolved. In the following years, the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) developed a test standard, ASTM E1226, to provide a standard test method characterizing the “explosibility” of particulate solids of combustible materials suspended in air. The research presented herein …

Landsliding Near Enguri Dam (Caucasus, Georgia) And Possible Seismoectonic Effects, Alessandro Tibaldi, Paolo Oppizzi, John S. Gierke, Thomas Oommen, Nino Tsereteli, Davit Odilavadze

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

The Enguri dam and water reservoir, nested in southwestern Caucasus (Republic of Georgia), are surrounded by steep mountain slopes. At a distance of 2.5 km from the dam, a mountain ridge along the reservoir is affected by active deformations with a double vergence. The western slope, directly facing the reservoir, has deformations that involve a subaerial area of 1.2 km2. The head scarp interests the main Jvari-Khaishi-Mestia road with offset of man-made features that indicate slip rates of 2-9 cm/y. Static, pseudostatic and Newmark numerical analyses, based on field and seismological data, suggest different unstable rock volumes basing on the …

Additive Manufacturing Of Liners For Shaped Charges, Jason Ho, Cody Lough, Phillip R. Mulligan, Edward C. Kinzel, Catherine E. Johnson

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A Shaped Charge (SC) is an explosive device used to focus a detonation in a desired direction, and has applications in oil extraction, weaponry and demolition. The focusing relies on a void in the explosive mass, shaped by a metal liner that becomes a super-heated projectile during detonation. Additive Manufacturing (AM) allows greater design freedom and geometric complexity for the liner portion of the SC. Specifically, hierarchical structuring and functional grading can potentially provide greater velocity, directionality, and efficiency. In this work, Selective Laser Melting (SLM) is used to explore different geometries for an SC liner made out of SS …

Slalom: An All-Surface Snow Water Path Retrieval Algorithm For The Gpm Microwave Imager, Jean-François Rysman, Giulia Panegrossi, Paolo Sanò, Anna Cinzia Marra, Stefano Dietrich, Lisa Milani, Mark S. Kulie

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

This paper describes a new algorithm that is able to detect snowfall and retrieve the associated snow water path (SWP), for any surface type, using the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI). The algorithm is tuned and evaluated against coincident observations of the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) onboard CloudSat. It is composed of three modules for (i) snowfall detection, (ii) supercooled droplet detection and (iii) SWP retrieval. This algorithm takes into account environmental conditions to retrieve SWP and does not rely on any surface classification scheme. The snowfall detection module is able to detect 83% of snowfall events including …

Nanometer Ultrastructural Brain Damage Following Low Intensity Primary Blast Wave Exposure, Hailong Song, Landry M. Konan, Jiankun Cui, Catherine E. Johnson, Graham K. Hubler, Ralph G. Depalma, Zezong Gu

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Blast-induced mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is of particular concern among military personnel due to exposure to blast energy during military training and combat. The impact of primary low-intensity blast mediated pathophysiology upon later neurobehavioral disorders has been controversial. Developing a military preclinical blast model to simulate the pathophysiology of human blast injury is an important first step. This article provides an overview of primary blast effects and perspectives of our recent studies demonstrating ultrastructural changes in the brain and behavioral disorders resulting from open-field blast exposures up to 46.6 kPa using a murine model. The model is scalable and …