Suppression of Fire on Underground Coal Mine Conveyer Belts,

摘要

The program involves the evaluation of means for suppressing fires on underground coal mine conveyor belts. Full-scale conveyor belt fire tests were conducted to determine the requirements of automatically actuated water sprinkler,high expansion foam,and multipurpose dry powder extinguishing systems,and of various fire detection devices,necessary to adequately protect underground belt heads. The program included the development of a suitable full scale conveyor belt test fire,conducting of fire tests in which extinguishing and detection systems and equipment were evaluated,and testing to evaluate the effects of the coal mine environment on detection equipment. Preliminary testing conducted to develop a suitable test fire revealed that fire can propagate on some conveyor belting classified as fire-resistant. New fire-resistant PVC and new nonfire resistant rubber belts were used in the full-scale fire tests. These tests indicated that a single branch line sprinkler system with relatively low water pressure provides adequate belt head protection.