Optimum insulation for engineering control of mine thermal regime around a mine airway in permafrost

摘要

For mine opening in permafrost, if the temperature increase in the surrounding rock mass is large enough during the mine operation due to heat transfer between the ventilation air and the rock mass, the overall strength of the rock mass may decrease, causing deformation to increase over time. Large deformation of a mine opening will create potential stability problems in "warm", ice-rich silt and gravel placer gold deposits. To prevent the heat transfer from ventilation air into the surrounding rock mass, one commonly used method is to insulate the walls of mine airways. In this paper, analysis of several configurations for a completely insulated airway surrounded only by frozen silt, including three types of insulation and four insulation thicknesses is presented. Results from numerical simulations for a time interval of ten years was used to optimize insulation thickness for engineering control.