Recent Developments in Spray Cooling of Deep Mines

摘要

The report describes in detail four water spray coolers designed for cooling deep underground mines and discusses the performance of three of them in deep-mine field tests. The four spray coolers were designed and built as part of a Bureau of Mines program to investigate direct-contact (warm air to cool water) spray cooling systems. A single-stage cooling unit was tested in a New Mexico uranium mine, and a two-stage cooler and a three-stage cooler were tested in a South Dakota gold mine. To date, all three coolers have performed well under in-mine conditions and have required only minimal maintenance.