Computer programming for estimation of fire indices and fire risk

assessment in coal mines.

Computer programming for estimation of fire indices and fire risk assessment in coal mines: 5
case studies

Abstract

From the view of underground coal mining safety system, it is extremely important to continuous
monitoring of coal mines for the prompt detection of fires or related problems inspite of its uncertainty
and imprecise characteristics. Therefore, evaluation and inferring the data perfectly to prevent fire
related accidental risk in underground coal mining (UMC) system are very necessary. In the present
article, we have proposed a novel type-2 fuzzy logic system (T2FLS) for the prediction of fire intensity
and its risk assessment for risk reduction in an underground coal mine. Recently, for the observation of
underground coal mines, wireless underground sensor network (WUSN) are being concerned frequently.
To implement this technique IT2FLS, main functional components are sensor nodes which are installed
in coal mines to accumulate different imprecise environmental data like, temperature, relative humidity,
different gas concentrations etc. and these are sent to a base station which is connected to the ground
observation system through network. In the present context, a WUSN based fire monitoring system is
developed using fuzzy logic approach to enhance the consistency in decision making system to improve
the risk chances of fire during coal mining. We have taken Mamdani IT2FLS as fuzzy model on coal mine
monitoring data to consider real-time decision making (DM). It is predicted from the simulated results
that the recommended system is highly acceptable and amenable in the case of fire hazard safety with
compared to the wired and off-line monitoring system for UMC. Legitimacy of the suggested model is
prepared using statistical analysis and multiple linear regression analysis.

Introduction

The productivity, quality and safety performance of an UMC systems are highly influenced by the
environmental states (uncertain or fuzzy) of it. Therefore, it is necessary to observe the complexity and
perilousness of its environment in a continuous manner to ensure the safety and risk level of coal
mining. At present, this particular discussed technology (WSN) is being utilized widely in any workplace
imprecise environment of an industry or like UMC system in various uncertain environments. Banerjee
has developed a spontaneous combustion process driven by auto-oxidation of coal with various
carbonaceous matter which is basically a complex physio-chemical process used to generate heat energy
and some polluting gases like CO, CO2CO2, higher degrees hydrocarbons etc. Bhattacharjee has
explained the enactment of WSN-based model which can be simulated for making a fire monitoring as
well as alarm (FMA) system for the application in Bord-and-Pillar coal mine panel. The proposed WSN-
based coal mine consisted of Bord-and-Pillar system is skilled of not only providing real-time monitoring
and alarm in case of a fire, but also providing the exact fire location and spreading track by continuously
gathering, analyzing, and storing real time information.
Cheng has developed a Web-based, lightweight remote monitoring and control platform using a wireless
sensor network (WSN) with the REST style to collect temperature, humidity and methane concentration
data in a coal mine using sensor nodes. The authors have implemented three different scenarios for
Web-based, lightweight remote monitoring and control of coal mine safety and measured and analyze
the system performance.
Coal mine production environment is very multifarious. There are many uncertain in-formations existed
in the gas safety evaluation process and it is also difficult to predict fire intensity in imprecise
environment. Underground environmental condition of mines are mainly responsible for the

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 Computer programming for estimation of fire indices and fire risk
assessment in coal mines.

productivity and safety performance of coal mining system. The major factors that influence the
different uncertain environmental conditions of an underground coal mines (UCM) are, airflow,
temperature, humidity, dust and gases. These operations are essentially responsible for the generation
of various toxic gases like, H2SH2S, CO2CO2, CO, etc. The other highly recommended hazards which are
related to the underground mining system are fire and explosions, generally happened for the
spontaneous combustion of coal like inflammable materials, its dust and methane mixtures,
respectively. The observation of UCM environment is vastly done with the help of various monitoring
devices consisting of data loggers. To facilitate the improvement of this vulnerability, online observation
or monitoring system was developed in advanced places with the aim of keeping a track of the
unwanted environmental conditions of the UCM. Conversely, the system used wired connection and
then suffered from many flaws such as damaging chances in connection cables or components, large
fault rate, defective system maintenance etc. For that reason, online monitoring system of UCM using
wireless sensor network (WSN) has become a common practice now-a-days. As a result, WSN (Akyildiz
and Stuntebeck 2006) has developed like a crucial technique in continuous monitoring of an industrial
workplace or in an UCM. It can be recognized by involving sensor nodes in proper positions of
underground mines to gather environmental data and to detect the occurrences of probable risks like
fires, explosions, gas leaks or roof failures etc.

Muduli has developed a WSN for environmental monitoring for UCM and this investigation represented
a literature part in an organized manner based on the contemporary investigations in the application of
WUSN technique. Hence, UCM driven by WSN i.e. online monitoring; Mishra has become the very
common practice. NawrockiIzabela and Kowalska (2016) have developed a type-1 fuzzy logic model for
combined internal and industrial risk assessment in a coal mining. It is important to predict conditions
leading to the fire hazard by proper interpretation of the imprecise data from UCM system.

The type-1 fuzzy logic first proposed by Zadeh (1965) for decision making, and is able to provide
accurate results based on uncertain and vague information. The most popular type-1 fuzzy inference
models are Mamdani and Assilian (1975) and Sugeno Sugeno (1985). Generally, each model can be
represented as “If antecedence then consequence”. The antecedence is the same for all type-1 fuzzy
models (Dey and Jana 2016), but the consequence has different forms for each model. In spite of above
mentioned development has been made, we have developed the following:

1. The IT2FLC approach is applied to compute the system output in the construction of robust WSN
based fire monitoring system for mines.

2. In T2FLC assists to trace four inputs (temperature, CO, CO2,O2CO2,O2) and one output fire
intensity in a pre-planned way to build the inference train for which the system output can be
forecast.

3. The responsible qualitative factors which are involved highly for the improvement in system
output, can be easily comprised in the T2F prediction model to achieve better accuracy.

4. Legitimacy of the suggested model is prepared using statistical analysis and multiple linear
regression.

5. An autonomous system via supervised fuzzy learning under dynamic electricity prices.

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 Computer programming for estimation of fire indices and fire risk
assessment in coal mines.

6. A robust T2FLC model is developed to evaluate the instant updates of mine fire risk chances
from the UCM imprecise data.

Motivation and model formation

Motivation

Fire monitoring in UCMs are much more flat to natural fire occurrences than other solid mineral mines.
Coal being a costly mineral, the damage and destruction by fire in the UCMs are also catastrophic. The
coals in underground mines are subject to fire by natural oxidation procedure, and when caught on fire,
it is quite nearly not possible to reduce the spread, if the fire is not detected and prevented at the early
stage. So, it is quite important to sense fire at a stage that is close to its initiation. The underground
structures of different mines are different. It is not easy to work in UCMs imprecise environments with
limited resources and capabilities. Especially coal mines are much more unsafe with respect to fire
catching and presence of explosive gas and dust. wireless sensors which are capable of detecting fire can
be used to monitor and send alarm automatically to the DM. These come really useful in that situation.
Various low-power and cost-effective sensor platforms have been developed based upon recent
advances in wireless communication and micro system technologies. During this unstructured
combustion process, the combustion gases like CO and CO2CO2 are mainly produced as compared to
the hydrocarbons with reduction of O2O2 and liberation of heat. The enlarge in temperature and
concentrations of CO and CO2CO2 gases in UCM imprecise environment not only gives definitive early
indication of the occurrence of fire due to impulsive combustion but also the status of fire as well. There
are various fire indices are used for early detection and assessing the status of fire in underground coal
mines. Among these, Graham’s ratio, Young’s ratio and oxides of carbon ratio (CO/CO2CO2) are most
commonly used in practice. This is because fire in underground coal mines is largely caused due to
spontaneous combustion of coal. Hence, in our type-2 fuzzy model, we used temperature,
CO, CO2CO2 and O2O2 as the input parameters for early detection of fire in UCMs.

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 Computer programming for estimation of fire indices and fire risk
assessment in coal mines.

Thus, in order to establish a safety measure for mines, The WSNs can prove to be useful and reliable
prediction in an imprecise data. There are two types of WUSN based coal mine monitoring system has
been deployed (a) Long wall mine which is formed of UMC where a long wall of coal is mined in a single
slice and (b) Bord and pillar mine where the mined material is extracted across a horizontal plane,
creating horizontal arrays of rooms and pillars.

WUSN has been developed for the observation of environmental conditions measuring the major
parameters responsible for its production in a regular interval of the mines and to alert early to the
ground monitoring system at the time of risk. In this case, alert signal is generated when the responsible
environmental parameters gets more than the threshold value and this type of system is very
unpredictable and complex for observation since, the alarming signals are never generated by the
system despite the nearer value of monitoring data to threshold value. To improve this type of problem,
T2FLC requires to be incorporated to WUSN for designing of an efficient as well as trustworthy
monitoring system in UCM.

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 Computer programming for estimation of fire indices and fire risk
assessment in coal mines.

Model formulation

During this spontaneous combustion process in a coal mines, the combustion gases like CO
and CO2CO2 are primarily formed as compared to the hydrocarbons with depletion of O2O2 and release
of heat and combining these parameters, we formulate a block diagram of proposed model. The
increment in temperature and concentrations of CO and CO2CO2 gases in UCM environment gives
definitive early indication of the occurrence of fire due to spontaneous combustion too the status of fire
as well. Therefore, in our T2F model, we have utilized temperature, CO, CO2CO2 and O2O2 as the input
parameters can be used for early detection of fire in UCM.

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 Computer programming for estimation of fire indices and fire risk
assessment in coal mines.

Solution procedure

In the first stage, we have collected source data and calculated input criteria for the proposed inference
model. According to previously adopted assumptions, the basic criteria for assessing operational risk
assessment in coal mining enterprisers are based on practical data, which may be obtained by analyzing
the content of interim reports and financial statements by the mining companies.
In the second stage, for the needs of the “fuzzification” module, we have determined the form of the
type-2 fuzzy sets for respective four input variables as CO,CO2,O2CO,CO2,O2 and temperature, and also
for these variables the basic terms set and the division of their value spaces. Due to similarities in the
expression of natural language assessments of the individual variables, for the purpose we have
developed a type-2 fuzzy (T2F) model. We have adopted the same linguistic vocabulary and division of
values space for the respective groups input and output variables. We considered in the case of input
variables, into three T2F membership functions (mfs) {{ low, medium, high }} and for output variable fire
intensity, in order to obtain more accurate results, into five fuzzy mfs {{ Very-low, low, medium, high,
very-high }}.

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 Computer programming for estimation of fire indices and fire risk
assessment in coal mines.

We propose a WSN-based fire monitoring system for UCMs using type-2 fuzzy logic approach that fuzzy
inference system in uncertain environment. The SNs are deployed in the UCMs for collecting the
monitoring data, such as temperature and concentrations of various gases like CO, CO2CO2 and O2O2.
These data are input to the type-2 fuzzy system which in turn produces the status of fire in UCMs. The
type-2 fuzzy system is implemented at sensor nodes and base station (sink) for making real-time
decisions from the monitored imprecise data. The main objective of the proposed research work is to
minimize the delay in decision-making process and provide an efficient and reliable fire monitoring
system for underground coal mines. Recently, Grychowski (2014) has proposed an offline fire
monitoring system for underground coal mines using fuzzy inference system. It measures the
performance of type-1 fuzzy based fire monitoring system by using previously collected monitoring data
which is a delayed network and not responsive to the imminent hazards.

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 Computer programming for estimation of fire indices and fire risk
assessment in coal mines.

Moreover, because of the ease of use and great versatility of both variable groups, we adopted the
trapezoidal shape of the mfs for each type-2 fuzzy set and equal division of their value spaces. The
characteristic points describing the mfs of each type-2 fuzzy set for four input variables were set
arbitrarily based on the distribution of analyzed variable values. We have created a relevant type-2 fuzzy
inference rules for the needs of the “inference” module, determining the mechanism of inference and
defining the one output membership function of the proposed inference model. Due to the lack of
proper information, knowledge and experience in this area of coal mining, the respective rules are
elaborated without the use of external experts. Taking into consideration the inference model structure,
we have formulated 18 knowledge base rule in the form of IF—THAN.

Simulation and discussion

Data collected from UCM (temperature, carbon mono-oxide and oxygen) are simulated using Mamdani
IT2FIS. From the collected data, it can be witnessed on the increment in temperature, CO
and CO2CO2 concentrations, while the concentration of oxygen decreases w.r.t. time. This occurs due to
the spontaneity of the combustion process of coal. The Mamdani IT2FS receives these data and
generates the fire intensity model on the basis of data characteristics as output. The steps involved for
simulation in resulting the fire intensity of UCM from collected data using fuzzy logic from which should

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 Computer programming for estimation of fire indices and fire risk
assessment in coal mines.

be modified as the logical approach is of four steps. It converts the collected data into T2F input mfs.
Then these inputs were evaluated using the Mamdani fuzzy rules given. Then the T2F outputs were
combined into a single output like fire intensity. At last, fire intensity is displayed as a crisp output using
COG defuzzification method. Out of 35 sets of data collected, 10 sets of randomly selected data and the
indices including R2, RMSE, were used to evaluate the performance of model. The results show that for
10 sets of randomly selected data, the type-2 fuzzy logic model,
with R2=0.99R2=0.99, RMSE=2.10RMSE=2.10, performs better than the multiple regression models and
may be used for the estimation in the longwall panels. This paper provides a new way to support fire
hazard assessment in a preliminary concept in type-2 fuzzy environment and this problem requires
further research followed by verification in industry. From these result T2FIS has provided better
performance which is expect by coal mine manager.

Conclusion

we have developed interval type-2 fuzzy logic control approach for evaluation of prompt sensing
capability of any fire risk situation and to handle the safety assessment in UCM through the
implementation of WUSN system. The T2FLC helped by assisting to trace the inputs and outputs in a
well-secured as well as comprehensive manner for developing the inferences train so that various types
of underground environmental conditions could be predicted during coal mining from UCM system. The
help of this particular T2FLC is taken for the implementation of WUSN because the difficulty and
complexity both are higher to take decisions from ground monitoring system through wired connection
including the high uncertainty and rough nature of underground. Prediction of various types of
environmental conditions helps to optimize the sensing parameters during the underground monitoring
system of UCM. The authors argue that the suggested T2FLC method is a completely new and unique
approach for construction and controlling the WUSN of UCM during coal mining proposed in this paper
needs to be developed, regarding coal mining from UCM that must be satisfied to get an effective
output in the workplace. Moreover, in this paper, the financial effects of the discussed process are not
taken into account while constructing an interval type-2 fuzzy rule base. The study is mainly focused on
the development of WUSN system in UCM for the safety assessment to minimize the fire risk hazard in
adverse condition. Therefore, quantitative factors responsible to get positive output can be easily
included in the fuzzy prediction model for improving accuracy. The major contribution of this research
work is proposing a systematic integrated approach for modelling process condition and their prediction
so that accuracy of sensor and its performance efficiency during coal mining in UCM can be improved.
For further research work, we will utilize and integrate other intelligent methods, such as interpretative
structural modelling method, simulink, fuzzy artificial neural network, to evaluate the scale of efficiency
of our current work.

References
 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40789-019-0244-7
 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319329853_Development_of_a_Spontaneous_Heati
ng_Fire_Risk_Index_for_Opencast_Coal_Mines
 http://cimfr.csircentral.net/103/1/JSIR_63%287%29_579-591.pdf