Arch. Min. Sci., Vol. 61 (2016), No 4, p.

949–966
Electronic version (in color) of this paper is available: http://mining.archives.pl

DOI 10.1515/amsc-2016-0063

ZHAOXIANG CHU*,1, JIANHU JI**, XIJUN ZHANG**, HONGYUAN YAN**,

HAOMIN DONG**, JUNJIE LIU**

DEVELOPMENT OF ZL400 MINE COOLING UNIT USING SEMI-HERMETIC SCREW COMPRESSOR

AND ITS APPLICATION ON LOCAL AIR CONDITIONING IN UNDERGROUND LONG-WALL FACE

OPRACOWANIE ZESTAWU CHŁODZĄCEGO ZL400 SKŁADAJĄCEGO SIĘ Z PÓŁ-HERMETYCZNEJ

SPRĘŻARKI ŚRUBOWEJ I JEGO ZASTOSOWANIE DO KLIMATYZACJI LOKALNEJ W REJONIE
PRZODKA ŚCIANOWEGO

Aiming at heat injuries occurring in the process of deep coal mining in China, a ZL400 mine-cooling
unit employing semi-hermetic screw compressor with a cooling capacity of 400 kW is developed. This paper
introduced its operating principle, structural characteristics and technical indexes. By using the self-built
testing platform, some parameters for indication of its operation conditions were tested on the ground. The
results show that the aforementioned cooling unit is stable in operation: cooling capacity of the unit was
420 kW underground-test conditions, while its COP (coefficient of performance) reached 3.4. To address
the issue of heat injuries existing in No. 16305 U-shaped long-wall ventilation face of Jining No. 3 coal
mine, a local air conditioning system was developed with ZL400 cooling unit as the system’s core. The
paper presented an analysis of characteristics of the air current flowing in the air-mixing and cooling mode
of ZL400 cooling unit used in air intake way. Through i-d patterns we described the process of the airflow
treatment, such as cooling, mixing and heating, etc. The cooling system decreased dry bulb temperature
on working face by 3°C on average and 3.8°C at most, while lowered the web bulb temperature by 3.6°C
on average and 4.8°C at most. At the same time, it reduced relative humidity by 5% on average and 8.6%
at most. The field application of the ZL400 cooling unit had gain certain effects in air conditioning and
provided support for the solution of mine heat injuries in China in terms of technology and equipment.

Keywords: coalmine; heat injuries; cooling unit; long-wall working face; ventilation and cooling

Aby zapobiec zagrożeniom spowodowanym wysokimi temperaturami panującymi w podziemnych

kopalniach w Chinach, zaprojektowano zestaw chłodzący ZL400 składający się z pół-hermetycznej sprę-
żarki śrubowej o wydajności 400 kW. W pracy omówiono zasady działania zestawu chłodzącego, jego
budowę oraz parametry techniczne. Przy wykorzystaniu specjalnie do tych celów zbudowanej platformy
* SCHOOL OF MECHANICS & CIVIL ENGINEERING, CHINA UNIVERSITY OF MINING & TECHNOLOGY, XUZHOU 221116
PR CHINA
** CHONGQING RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF CHINA COAL TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING GROUP, CHONGQING 400037
PR CHINA
1
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: E-MAIL ADDRESS: chulongxiang @163.com

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testowej, działanie zestawu zostało szczegółowo zbadane. Wyniki wskazały, że działanie zestawu jest
stabilne, wydajność chłodzenia w warunkach testowych pod ziemią wyniosła 420 kW a współczynnik pracy
wyniósł 3.4. W celu zapobiegania zagrożeniom spowodowanym przez nadmierne temperatury w rejonie
przodka nr 16305 w kształcie litery U w kopalni węgla Jining 3, zaprojektowano układ klimatyzacji, którego
głównym elementem jest zestaw chłodzący ZL400. W pracy przedstawiono charakterystyki przepływu
strumienia powietrza w strefie mieszania i w strefie chłodzenia dla zestawu chłodzącego umieszczonego
w rejonie wlotu powietrza. Analizy przepływu powietrza (chłodzenie, mieszanie, ogrzewania) opisano
przy pomocy przebiegów i-d. Dzięki układowi chłodzenia obniżono temperatury termometru suchego
w rejonie przodka średnio o 3°C, a maksymalnie o 3.8°C, zaś temperatura termometru wilgotnego obni-
żyła się średnio o 3.6°C, a maksymalnie o 4.8°C. Jednocześnie obniżeniu uległa wilgotność powietrza,
średnio o 5%, a maksymalnie o 8.6%. Zastosowanie zestawu chłodzącego ZL400 w warunkach roboczych
daje określone efekty i przyczynia się do rozwiązania problemu zagrożeń spowodowanych nadmiernymi
temperaturami w kopalniach chińskich poprzez poszukiwania skutecznych technik i sprzętu.

Słowa kluczowe: kopalnia węgla, zagrożenia spowodowane wysokimi temperaturami, przodek ścianowy,
wentylacja, chłodzenie

1. Introduction
Coal is the dominant energy of China, and has provided reliable support of energy for the
rapid and sustained growth of the national economy. According to the data released by National
Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the coal production in China amounted to 3.68 billion tons in 2013
(China Bureau of Statistics, 2014). To secure the energy supply needed by the rapid while sus-
tained development of the national economy and maintain the annual coal production at 4 bil-
lion tons., depth of exploitation of coal resources will inevitably increase. The number of coal
mines with mining depth exceeding 1,000 meters is 47 in China, and the average mining depth
is up to 1,086 meters. Among these, maximum mining depth has already reached 1501 meters
in Suncun coal mine, which is owned by Xinwen Mining Group of Shandong Energy. This is
also the maximum depth in Asia (Wang & Gao, 2013). During the deep mining, apart from some
accidental disasters and threats in local parts such as coal and gas outburst, rock burst, and water
bursting, etc., coal mines are generally exposed to heat injuries that has become an important
factor restricting the safe mining of deep coal resources (He, 2009).
Not only effect the physical health of workers and reduce labor productivity, high tempera-
ture and humidity in coal mines also poses a serious threat to the safe production of coal mines.
Although various causes of heat injuries in coal mines exist (ASHRAE, 2007), in China major
reasons for the heat in coal mines include heat emission from wall rocks caused by raise of virgin
rock temperature when increasing mining depth, and heat dissipation of large electromechanical
equipment (Yang et al., 2011). To provide proper working environment for underground working
face, traditional non-mechanical cooling methods should be applied at first to alleviate the issue
of heat injuries, for example increasing ventilation rate, changing mining method and ventila-
tion mode, etc. Once such traditional way fails to work, mechanical ways of cooling must be
taken. Western countries with well-developed mining industries such as US, Germany, Britain,
Australia, Poland, South Africa, have researched on air cooling in deep mines, and worked out
diverse forms of mechanical cooling systems that have brought good effects. For instance, in
US, centralized cooling systems on ground (both cooling and heat dissipation are completed on
ground), in underground mines (they are completed in underground mines) and of hybrid usage
(cooling completed in underground mines while heat dissipation on ground) are built respectively
according to the difference in positions of cooling and heat dissipation for mechanical cooling

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systems (Howard, 1997; ASHRAE, 2007). Each cooling system can take several specific forms
according to specific conditions. German approach of mine cooling is to construct refrigeration
stations with large cooling capacity on ground or in underground mines (Schlotte, 1999). Relying
on its developed industrial equipment manufacturing industry, it enhances the cooling capacity
of each cooling unit in refrigeration stations as much as possible so as to compensate the cool-
ing losses and discharges the condensation heat generated in the system on ground. As Britain
and Australia are independent commonwealth countries, their coal mining methods bear much
resemblance: long-wall mining is applied most often, while U-shaped or Y-shaped ventilation is
used for working face. Their mine cooling methods, under the influences of those in Germany,
consist of separate or gradual cooling air flow through air coolers placed on roadways (including
air intake and return roadways) in working face and on ground by chilled water from centralized
cooling systems (Anderson, 1988; McPherson, 1993; Mitchell, 2003; Lowndes et al., 2004). Heat
injuries, partly resulted from the increase of mining depth, also exist in mines in Poland, which
is a major coal producer in Eastern Europe. In early years, mine cooling technology in Poland
received strong influences from Germany, however in recent years it developed rapidly. The mainly
applied systems are underground centralized air-cooling systems and mobile air-cooling systems.
Accessorial equipment is centralized and local cooling devices such as GMC-2000, GMC-1000,
TS-300, and TS-450 (Nowak, 2012, 2013; Jerzy, 2013). South Africa is the first on developing
mine cooling technologies all over the world and has abundant cooling methods. Since the mines
in South Africa are precious metal mines, higher mining costs are affordable. Therefore, the min-
ing depth in the country is large, averaging between 3,000 and 5,000 meters. It has conducted
relevant researches on analysis of various heat sources, determination of temperature-lowering
load, local air-cooling in mines, centralized cooling on the ground and underground, ice cooling
system, related accessorial equipment, and computer simulation software (Vander et al., 1983;
JJL et al., 2006; Gundersen et al., 2006; Wilson, 2008).
At present, the technology and equipment associated with heat injuries in coal mines are basi-
cally identical to the above countries. For example, Zhaolou coal mine of Shandong Province uses
both water spraying on ground systems and underground centralized cold-water cooling systems
in need of different phases; Dingji and Panji coal mines of Anhui Province combines centralized
mine cooling heating and power system (CCHP); Sikuang coal mine of Henan Province operated
by Pingmei Group employs mobile air conditioning systems for loacal parts and cooling systems
for whole mines using cryogenic refrigerators with heat, electricity and glycol; Sanhejian coal
mine of Jiangsu Province deploys HEMS deep mine air-cooling systems, which utilizes mine
inflow water as the cooling source (Yang et al., 2011). All these above have gained good cool-
ing effects. However, differs from conditions in countries with developed mining industries, the
main issue confronting coal mine cooling in China is the lack of key and core equipment (such
as local cooling units, large explosion-proof cooling units, and so on). Regardless of large-size
centralized air-cooling systems or small-sizes mobile local air-cooling systems flexible in use,
the evolution requires big breakthroughs in such key and core equipment development. Having
fully understood of the 4 characteristics in coal mines – high temperature, high humidity, high
dust and limited space, we introduced, learned and reinnovated world’s advanced technologies
and equipment. While improve reliability of key equipment, we reduced development costs. In
this paper, a ZL400 series of mine cooling units using semi-hermetic screw compressors were
developed and applied in practices to reduce heat injuries occurring in the process of deep coal
mining in China.

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2. The development of ZL400 cooling unit

2.1. The operating principle

Same with ordinary ground-based cooling unit, the operating principle of ZL400 mine
cooling unit completeg the whole refrigeration cycle with compressor, evaporator, condenser,
expansion valve and the circulated refrigerant. Shortly after absorbing excess heat, the gaseous
refrigerant is compressed into gas of high temperature and pressure by the compressor, and then
transferred to the condenser to be condensed into liquid at 50°C. Heat released thereby is car-
ried away by the circulated cooling water in the condenser. Afterwards, the cooled refrigerant
is decompressed and passes through expansion valve into evaporator, where it turns into gas of
low temperatures (ranging from 0°C to 10°C), absorbs excess heat from water or air flowing to
achieve cooling goals. Such gaseous refrigerant is then transferred to the compressor again, and
thereby a closed refrigeration cycle “compression→condensation→throttling→evaporation” is
formed. The basic principle is shown in Fig. 1.
A major feature of the ZL400 mine cooling unit is that both cooling and heat discharging
processes are completed in underground mines. The cooling unit uses returning air or gushing
water in heat discharge. However, to solve the issue that heat medium reaches high temperatures
in summer, it is designed as a heat pump unit that operates at high condensing temperature, has
large flow capacity, works with small temperature difference, and uses water to carry away heat.
It uses R22 as the circulated refrigerant, which is designed to evaporate at 0°C, condensing tem-
perature of 53°C, and work at overheating temperature of 5°C while supercooling temperature
of 5°C. Consequently, pressure-enthalpy diagram (lgP-h) of R22 cooling and circulating can
be determined, as shown in Fig. 2. According to the physical properties of the refrigerant,
parameters corresponding to the status points can then be found and determined, as shown in
Table 1.

heat release

high-temperature and
high pressure liqui high-pressure steam

Condenser
Expansion
M Compressor
valve
Evaporator

low temperature and low low temperature and low

pressure saturated steam pressure superheated steam

heat absorption
Fig. 1. Diagram of cycle process of compressing and cooling

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Fig. 2. The pressure-enthalpy diagram (lgP-h) for the refrigeration cycle of R22

TABLE 1
Corresponding parameters of the status points

State Temperature Pressure Specific Enthalpy Specific Entropy

Point [°C] [MPa] [kJ/kg] [kJ/(kg· °C)]
1 5 0.498 408.7247 1.764
2 80.8048 2.0798 445.7817 1.764
3 48 2.0798 260.3639 1.1987
4 0 0.498 260.3639 1.221
5 0 0.498 405.0479 1.7507
6 0 0.498 200 1

2.2. Structure and technical parameters

Body of refrigerator consists of semi-hermetic screw refrigeration compressor machine,
shell and tube condenser, thermal expansion valve, filter drier, oil collector and related regulating
valve, etc. Small dimension of the whole machine leads to convenience on tarnsporting. Usage
of hermetic screw compressor steadies operation and prevents leakage of refrigerant. Full self-
protection mechanism enables strong adaptability for complex environment. Design sketch of
the ZL400 cooling unit is shown in Fig. 3 while main technical parameters are listed in Table 2.
Local air conditioning systems contained in ZL400 cooling unit can be divided into two
categories: direct action refrigeration system wehre evaporator cools air flow directly and indirect
action refrigeration equipment where evaporator cools water supplied to gate road and longwall
air coolers. As shown in Fig. 4, The former mainly consists of ZF400 cooling unit, direct cooling
evaporator, recooler, monitoring system (such as PLC, etc.) and necessary accessories, while the
latter is composed of ZL400 cooling unit, evaporator, air cooler, recooler, monitoring system
(such as PLC, etc.) and necessary accessories. The relation between ZL400 cooling unit and
accessories is illustrated in Fig. 5.
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Fig. 3. Design sketch of ZL400 cooling unit

TABLE 2

The main technical parameters of ZL400 refrigeration unit

Technical Indexes Technical Parameters

Model of the Unit ZL400
Normal Conditions Evaporating Temperature: 0°C; Condensing Temperature: 53°C
Cooling Capacity (kW) 400
Power 660V, 50Hz, 3PH
Used Refrigerant R-22
Refrigerant Charge (kg) 120
Pressure Switches, fusible plug, motor reversion, and compressor
Safety Protection
overheating protection
Type Semi-hermetic screw
Quantity 1
Compressor
Motor Power (kW) 132
Starting Mode Soft start
Type Closed shell and tube
Pressure by Waterside (MPa) 4
Water-side Pressure Drop (KPa) <100
Condenser Water Inlet Temperature (°C) 42
Water Outlet Temperature (°C) 48
Water Flow Rate (m3/h) 75 (Circulating)
Tube Diameter (mm) DN100
Length (mm) 2750
Dimension Width (mm) 1000 (Protection net is not included)
Height (mm) 1250
Weight (kg) 1900

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Fan Fan Air-cooler

Fan Heat-remover
Heat-remover

ZL400 cooling unit Evaporator

Fan
ZL400 cooling unit Evaporator
Make-up
water Make-up Pump Make-up Pump
water water

Pump
Cooling water tank Cooling water tank Frozen water tank

A: direct action refrigeration system B: indirect action refrigeration system

Fig. 4. Direct and indirect action refrigeration system composition with ZL400

Fig. 5. Relationship between ZL400 cooling unit and the accessories

ZL400 cooling unit has the following features:

(1) Three of “the 4 components” (the evaporator is excluded) working in the cooling and
cycle process of the cooling unit are its major component parts. Since evaporator is
separated from its body, its volume decreases, consequently makes it easier to move and
install. Moreover, such separation indicates that by equipping with different evapora-
tors, the unit can serve as direct action refrigeration system to cool air flow directly, as
well as indirect action refrigeration system to cool refrigerating media such as water,
thereby meeting the requirements of different specific conditions.

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(2) Differ from piston compressor, a screw compressor is employed in the cooling unit. As
screw compressor is semi-hermetic, problems such as leakage of refrigerant, “liquid
hammering” occurring in piston comressors, etc. can be avoided. This is a pioneering
work in mine cooling applications over the world.
(3) Componets of the cooling unit – compressor, evaporator and condenser – adopt modular
design, therefore can be dismantled and carried into underground mines piece by piece.
This is suitable for mines in south of China where heat injuries happen frequently, and
also have advantages for large and mordern mines in northern China. The unit owns
characteristics of small volume, mobile convenience, simple installation, easy operation,
flexibility, and good applicability, etc.

2.3. Ground test of performance

To detect performance of ZL400 cooling unit, a detection platform was established on
ground, which was primarily used to detect performance of local air conditioning system and
complete equipment and factory inspection, as well as providing technical support for technical
upgrading of existing equipment and development of novel systems for local air conditioning.
The platform has 4 major parts: refrigerating system, data acquisition system, PLC control and
protection system, together with power supply and distribution system. It is capable of detect-
ing performance of mine cooling systems with cooling capacity below 500 kW and complete
equipment. The platform was mainly used to test stability of operations of cooling unit under
different working conditions and cooling effects. Structure and appearance of the detection
platform is shown in Fig. 6. Operation conditions of air cooling system, acting as an example
here, is detected.

Fig. 6. Pictures of detection platform and data acquisition system

During the test, we adjusted the operation conditions of cooling unit to rated values, meas-
ured the inlet temperature of cooling water, the power consumption of compressor, and the actual
values of air entering and leaving the evaporator. By using air enthalpy difference method, we
performed the calculation according to formula (1) and (2) below. The cooling capacity Q:

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qm (ha1  ha 2 )
Q (1)
V (1  d )
where:
Q — cooling capacity [kW];
ha1 — entering air enthalpy [kJ/kg(dry air)];
ha2 — leaving air enthalpy [kJ/kg(dry air)];
qm — mass velocity of air at the testing point [kg/s];
d — moisture content at the testing point [kg(water vapor)/kg(dry air)];
V — specific volume of air at the testing point [m3/ kg].

The cooling unit performance COP:

Q
cop (2)
W
where: W represents motor power, and the measurement unit is kW.

Taken air-cooling unit as example, 5 tests were conducted and the average value was ob-
tained: the cooling capacity of the unit was approximately 420 kW on average, while all of the
calculated COPs were above 3.4. All the results are listed in Table 3.

TABLE 3

Test results of the operation of cooling unit (I)

Entering air Entering Leaving air Leaving

Test Air volume Power
temperature air humidity temperature air humidity
number [m3/s] [kW]
[°C] [%] [°C] [%]
1 33.5 78% 22.1 96% 8.3 122
2 33.6 79% 22.3 97% 8.2 121
3 33.1 83% 22.5 98% 8.4 121
4 32.8 78% 20.8 98% 8.4 122
5 32.6 81% 20.7 98% 8.1 122

TABLE 3

Performance calculations of the cooling unit (II)

Entering Leaving Specific volume of Moisture content Cooling C

Test
air enthalpy air enthalpy leaving air [kg/kg] capacity O
number
[kJ/kg] [kJ/kg] [m3/kg] (dry air) [kW] P
1 100 63.2 0.859 0.016084 420 3.4
2 101.4 64.4 0.86 0.01646 417 3.4
3 102.3 65.6 0.861 0.016844 423 3.5
4 96.6 59.5 0.854 0.01514 432 3.5
5 98.1 59.7 0.854 0.015207 431 3.5

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3. Field application of ZL400 cooling unit in mine

3.1. Project Overview
Jining No. 3 coal mine, owned by Yankuang Group Co. Ltd of Shandong Province, is the
first modern vertical shaft mine in China with designed production capacity of 5 million tons.
Data of geological exploration shows the depth and temperature of the constant temperature
zone are 55 m and 16.5°C respectively, where underground temperature gradient for the whole
mine is 2.44°C/100 m and average gradient for coal-bearing strata is 2.96°C/100 m. At present,
the mining depth has already reached –630 m level (nearly 700 m from surface to the deepest
area), and therefore, heat injuries caused by raise of ground temperature become increasingly
prominent. Ambient temperature and humidity of 16302 fully mechanized coal-working face
lying in the high temperature zone during production period has been measured, as shown in
Fig. 7. Conclusion draws that heat injury issue in the mine is ultimately urgent.

3.2. Calculation of cooling load on working face

Cooling load for mechanical air conditioning on working face is defined as the needed
supply of refrigerating output for working face to maintain temperature of working face inlet
air below or at 26°C (or 28°C according to Technical Specifications for Mine Cooling, MT/T
1136-2011. this paper used 28°C as standard). According to this requirement, main consideration
range for cooling design of the working face is the temperature conditions in air inlet ways and
along inclines of working face, while conditions in air- return ways is neglected temporarily. As
temperature and humidity on airflow course is in a rising tendency, the thermal parameters of
airflow at air-returning corner on working face can be treated as critical conditions (for instance,
dry-bulb temperature is 28°C and relative humidity is 80% at point C in Fig. 7). The target of
cooling working face is to keep the airflow temperature and humidity of the whole working face
below level of such conditions.

B t db=31 C
Intake air A
98%
t db=28 C
96%

Working face

C t db=33 C
Return air
100%
Fig. 7. Key point thermal parameters of airflow in 16302 working face before installment of cooling equipment

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Currently, air enthalpy difference method is often used to calculate cooling load of mechani-
cal air conditioning in underground working face. It is stated in Code for design of prevention
and elimination of thermal disaster in coal mines (GB50418-2007) that, the actually required
cooling load for working face and electromechanical chamber should be greater than or equal
to the following calculated value, i.e., Q ≥ M(i1 – i2) (Guo & Zhu, 2011). i1 hereby means the
enthalpy of inlet airflow on working face before cooling work, and i2 means the required enthalpy
of inlet airflow on working face after cooling. Some scholars believe that the required cooling
load for mechanical air conditioning in working face should states as follows: Q ≥ M(i1 – i2) + ΣQ
(Ji et al., 2013). i1 hereby means the enthalpy of airflow at cooling points when airflow reaches
its maximum temperatures, and i2 means the enthalpy of airflow at the target temperature when
cooling measures are taken. ΣQ means the sum of heat released from various heat source. Both
above formulas have practical applications. Value obtained in the first method is small, while
determination of i2 is not easy, requiring complicated reverse operation of heat and humidity; in
the second method, calculation of ΣQ is also quite complicated, and the overall value obtained is
large. Furthermore, repeated calculations exist in the second method. To obtain accurate cooling
load, based on the summary of the studies of related scholars, this paper concludes that the cool-
ing load should be described as Q ≥ M(i1 – i2) + ΔQ. The first term hereby means air enthalpy
difference at the target temperature of cooling in hottest period in summer at cooling points, and
part of the heat released from heat resources is already included in this term; the second term
means additional heat release resulted from the implementation of cooling measures. Reason for
this is that some of underground heat sources will release more heat because temperature dif-
ference increases after cooling measures are taken. So relatively speaking, it’s more reasonable.
Situation of heat injuries in 16305 working face is the worst in Jining No. 3 coal mine.
Working face is nearly 700 m below ground, situated in No. 16 north mining area. Accord-
ing to observation data, the entering air temperature in the face has reached 31°C in summer,
and relative humidity is near 95%; the temperature at air outlet can peak at 33°C with relative
humidity approaching 100%; air flow rate is 1000 m3/min and air density is considered to be
1.22 kg/m3. After cooling measures being taken in working face, temperature at C point (Fig.7)
should be controlled at 28°C and relative humidity around 80%. Through calculation, required
cooling load for mechanical air conditioning of 16305 working face in Jining No. 3 coal mine
is preliminarily determined to be 894 kW. According to provisions in article 5.3.5 in Code for
design of prevention and elimination of thermal disaster in coal mines (GB50418-2007), the
cooling load of refrigeration station should be determined by multiplying required cooling load
obtained through calculation by an additional coefficient varying between 1.1 and 1.2. Therefore,
refrigerating output of mechanical air conditioning system should be greater than or equal to
894 × 1.1 ≈ 983 kW. Calculation results for refrigerating output of mechanical air conditioning
were summed up in Table 4.

3.3. Design of local air conditioning scheme for working face

According to the calculation results above, to solute the heat injury issue in 16305 work-
ing face, refrigerating capacity of the cooling system should be about 1000 kW. Nevertheless,
capacity of a single local cooling system and its accessory equipment is generally between 300
kW and 500 kW. That is far lower than 1000 kW. Meanwhile the capacity of centralized cooling
system for a whole mine is much higher than 1000 kW. Therefore, the cooling capacity of 1000

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TABLE 4

Calculation of refrigerating output for cooling 16305 working face

Project Jining No. 3 coal mine

Cooling positions 16305 working face and the roadway
Level elevation –700 m
Atmosphere pressure 108.7 kPa
Air flow rate 1000 m3/min
Basic data
Maximum temperature 33°C
Relative humidity 100%
Moisture content 0.03 kg/kg (dry air)
Air enthalpy 110.03 kJ/kg
Target temperature 28
Target humidity 80%
Cooling target Moisture content 0.0178 kg/kg (dry air)
Atmosphere pressure 108.7 kPa
Air enthalpy 73.6 kJ/kg
Enthalpy difference 740 kW
Relative heat sources 154 kW
Refrigerating
Required cooling load 894 kW
output
Cooling load of refrigerating station 983 kW
Cooling capacity of the cooling system 1000 kW

kW is in an embarrassing situation. According to this fact, in light of successful applications of

single ZL400 local cooling unit in tunnelling face with cooling capacity of 400 kW, a decision
that use single local cooling system to cool working face is made after investigation. Such use
will alleviate heat injuries in a certain degree.
Local cooling system was installed in air intake roadway of U-shaped ventilation face in
16305 working face, so as to cool a part of airflow flowing through working face, as shown in
Fig. 8. The treatment of airflow in air blending and cooling – the process of fresh air handling at
a time in air return system – and the change in i-d pattern is described in Fig. 9.

Air parameters in state A:

Dry bulb temperature tA is 31°C; relative humidity φA is 95%; atmosphere pressure P is
108.7 kPa. Total air quantity is 1000 m3/min.

Air parameters in state 1:

According to performance of local cooling unit with cooling capacity of 400 kW used in
Jining No. 3 coal mine, we can decrease the temperature of airflow at a rate of 500 m3/min
from 33°C to 20°C, and raise the relative humidity from 80% to 100%. Thereby dry bulb
temperature t1 in state 1 can be determined as 20.6°C (used in tunnelling face), relative
humidityφ1 as 100%, and atmosphere pressure P as 108.7kPa.

Air parameters in state 2:

Through adiabatic mixing of air parameters in state A and 1 (an approximation to the fact
is that no exchange of temperature and humidity has occurred), air parameters in state 2
can be calculated. According to heat and humidity balance, all the relevant parameters in

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tC
C

Return air
16305
Stop line ZL400 refrigeration system Working
face
Intake air
Fan
B
A tA F t1 t2 tB
Cooling Mixing Warming

L = 300 m
Fig. 8. Thermodynamic change of airflow in intake airway when it takes cooling measures

State A Cooling State 1 Mixing

State 2 Warming
tA t1 T2

State A State B, C
tA tB, tC

Fig. 9. Process of air handling at a time for air return system in air blending and cooling

state 2 after the mixing are as follows (In the treating process, the mass of dry air is con-
sidered as unchanged):
State A: tA = 31°C, φA = 95%, dA = 25.747 g/kg.a, WA = 500 m3/min, hA = 97.171 kJ/kg.a;
State 1: t1 = 20.6°C, φ1 = 100%, d1 = 14.368 g/kg.a, W1 = 500 m3/min, h1 = 57.286 kJ/kg.a;
State 2: t2 = 25.7°C, φ2 = 100%, d2 = 19.939 g/kg.a, W2 = 1000 m3/min, h2 = 76.815 kJ/kg.a.

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When the working face is supplied with sufficient air, and surrounding virgin rock tem-
perature is not high, concentrating cooling air in intake air way within working face is enough
to alleviate heat injuries, i.e., position the local cooling unit inside the intake air way. Choice of
the position of cooling unit mainly involves consideration of cooling effects and mining speed of
the face. Since air has small specific heat capacity and can be heated quickly, the cooling effects
become better as the cooling unit is positioned closer to the air inlet of the working face. But if
the distance to the face is too short, the cooling unit will be moved frequently, which effects the
production. A single set of ZL400 local cooling system is used to cool working face in Jining
No. 3 coal mine. The dry bulb temperature of the air after mixing approaches 26°C (Since cool-
ing capacity of the system is insufficient, it’s unlikely for temperature at the upper corner of the
working face – air outlet – to reach 26°C, as required in the design, thus heat injuries can only be
alleviated to a certain degree). Therefore, in order to avoid influences on normal production in
working face, while considering cooling effects, the cooling system is positioned 300 m away from
air intake at the lower corner of working face, as shown in Fig. 8. Water source (dustproof water)
on ground is supplied and used to carry condensation heat of the refrigerating system. Through
heat exchange with the condenser in ZL400 cooling unit, the supplied water absorbes heat, and
is transferred to water sump in mining area, running through thermal insulation pipeline. Then
the water is pumped to ground, as shown in Fig. 10. Field used pictures are shown in Fig. 11.

Ground

Pump ZL400 cooling unit

Air
Fan duct
Cold air
Sump
Evaporator
Dustproof
Refrigerant
water M

Fig. 10. Supplied water to heat rejection in local cooling system

ZL 400 cooling unit ZL 400 cooling unit

Fig. 11. ZL 400 cooling unit(direct action) used in underground mine

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3.4. Test of cooling effects

Local cooling system started to work at the beginning of August 2011 and ended until
October 2011. Environmental parameters before and after running of the system are measured,
during functioning of the system. Results are shown in Table 5 and Fig. 12.

TABLE 5

Thermal parameters of airflow in working face before and after cooling

Dry bulb Wet bulb Relative humidity Enthalpy

temperature [°C] temperature [°C] [%] [kJ/kg.a]
Positions
Before After Before After Before After Before After
cooling cooling cooling cooling cooling cooling cooling cooling
Air intake on
1 31.8 29.4 30.8 27.7 93.33 87.78 98.978 83.999
working face
129# support
2 32.0 29.4 31.2 27.8 94.74 88.46 101.054 84.437
structure
100# support
3 32.6 29.5 32.2 28.2 97.62 90.56 106.436 86.227
structure
70# support
4 33.2 29.5 33.0 28.2 99.13 90.56 110.953 86.227
structure
40# support
5 33.4 29.6 33.0 28.6 97.82 92.68 110.994 88.048
structure
10# support
6 33.6 29.8 33.2 29.0 97.87 94.13 112.161 89.919
structure
Air outlet on
7 33.6 31.8 33.4 31.8 99.22 100 113.298 103.98
working face

3.5. Results discussion

(1) From Table 5 and Fig. 12, we can directly see that there was obvious drop in dry and
wet bulb temperature after the cooling work, and distinct decreased in relative humidity
and enthalpy of airflow in corresponding situations. For specific analysis, the average
dry bulb temperature in working face was 32.8°C before the cooling work, while the
average dry bulb temperature dropped to 29.8°C after cooling – it decreased by 3.0°C;
average wet bulb temperature in working face was 32.4°C before the cooling work,
while average wet bulb temperature dropped to 28.8°C after cooling – it decreased by
3.6°C. Similarly, relative humidity dropped by 5% and enthalpy of airflow decreased
by 19 kJ/kg.a. Air conditioning effect on working face was obvious. Although local air
conditioning system on working face had some air conditioning effects, it can be seen
from parameters at key points such as the air intake and outlet for working face, etc.
that the system still failed to comply with relevant provisions and even it did not reach
the design objectives. Therefore, a single set of ZL400 local cooling system can only
alleviate heat injuries to a certain extent, and it cannot solve the issue completely.
(2) A single set of local cooling system with cooling capacity of 400 kW was used in Jining
No. 3 coal mine to cool working face that required cooling capacity of near 1000 kW.

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Fig. 12. Comparison and analysis of thermal parameters of airflow before and after cooling

In the preliminary design, the critical conditions at air outlet for the face were taken
as the criteria, but because cooling capacity is insufficient, the criteria was replaced
by critical conditions at air intake. With the criteria, design and implementation of lo-
cal cooling scheme was carried out. Nevertheless, result of field test showed that dry
bulb temperature of intake airflow was 29.4°C, and relative humidity was 87.78%. It
showed that the temperature of cooled airflow increased from 25.7°C to 29.4°C, after
traveling a 300-meter distance of roadways to reach the air intake for working face –
the range of temperature increase was 3.6°C, and raise of temperature was 0.36°C in
every 100 meters. Temperature of airflow raised by 2.4°C over 150-meter distance of
working face, and it increased by 1.6°C every 100 meters. Rate of temperature raise in
working face was 4 times of that in air intake way. Rate of temperature raise in mining
face was 4 times of that in air intake way, which meant that a certain length of air duct
had some heat preservation and insulation effects in conveying the cooled air. Due to
human activities, operation of electromechanical equipment and mining activities, heat
released on the working face was several times of that in air intake roadway.
(3) After usage of local cooling system in working areas of 16305 working face, dry bulb
temperature at air outlet for the face was only 1.8°C lower than that before implemen-
tation of cooling measures. Suppose that according to the rule for linear change, if we
want to control the dry bulb temperature at air return corner for working face at 28°C,
cooling capacity of 1111kW – calculated through (5/1.8) × 400 ≈ 1111kW – would be
required for the temperature difference of 5°C. It would be 11% bigger than the cool-
ing load 1000 kW calculated earlier. This showed that affluence coefficient should be
considered in most situations for determination of the cooling capacity of underground

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cooling system, due to the complex conditions in underground mines, the approxima-
tion and inaccuracy of various parameters used in calculation. Precision and accuracy
should be taken into consideration at the time when the relevant basic study is thorough,
and the degree of accuracy gradually meets the requirements of projects for allowed
engineering errors permissible.

4. Conclusions
Through comprehensive consideration of high temperature, humidity, and dust, together
with gas, limited space and frequent change of positions, ZL400 mine cooling unit using semi-
hermetic screw compressor was developed. Results of ground tests showed that under design
conditions, actual cooling capacity of the cooling unit was 420 kW, with COP reaching 3.4.
Taking local cooling measures in 16305 working face in Jining No. 3 coal mine of Shandong
Province for example, this paper analyzed the characteristics of airflow in the air-mixing and
cooling mode of ZL400 cooling unit used in air intake way for working face. On that basis, the
scheme for arrangement and concrete implementation of local cooling system on working face
was determined. The system can reduce dry bulb temperature on the working face by 3.0°C on
average and 3.8°C at most; it reduced wet bulb temperature by 3.6°C on average and 4.8°C at
most; it decreased relative humidity by 5% on average and 8.6% at most; it decreased air enthalpy
by 18.7 kJ/kg.a on average and 24.7 kJ/kg.a at most. It had some effects in underground mine air
conditioning. The ZL400 cooling unit provided support for solution of issue of local heat injury
in mines of China in terms of technology and equipment, and it also enriched the mine cooling
technology and equipment system in China.

Acknowledgements
This work has been supported by National Key Technology Research and Development Pro-
gram of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2012BAK04B02), Major Program
of Innovation Foundation of China Coal Technology & Engineering Group (2011ZD001),
National Natural Science Foundation of China (41672343). The authors thank for these
financial supports.

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