Recent applications of computational methods in mine safety engineering

The increased automation of subsurface mine production environments has exacerbated the environmental conditions experienced within these workings such that environmental control is critical to both production and the safety of personnel. Recent increases in computational processing power has lead to the widespread application of such technologies as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Virtual Reality (VR) to mine safety related problems concerning atmospheric conditions. This paper presents some examples of recent novel applications of computational methods towards the integration of CFD/VR methods for personnel training, the simulation of flame spread along conveyor belting using combusting particle arrays and the use of multiphase granular continuum methods for simulating the atmospheric response to falling particulate material.