Trapped Miner Communication

Abstract

Accident due to roof fall and collapse of side gallery is a regular occurrence in underground coal mines which causes death of huge number of miners. To save valuable miners’ life, a suitable system is required for detecting the precise location of a trapped miner and helping the rescue team or mine management in displacing the debris from the right place and at the right time without wasting the valuable time after disaster (Bandyopadhyay et al., 2002). Radio propagation through coal strata is important to establish communications with trapped miner beneath coal block/chunk (Durkin, 1984). Therefore, the gadget for detecting of underground mine worker (transceivers) which locates him beneath coal chunk is an important device for speedy rescue and relief operation. The power restriction for transceiver is up to 2 W so that the intrinsic safety (IS) criteria for underground gassy coal mines is met without using flameproof (FLP) enclosure. This power restriction further limits the communication range in underground mines. Therefore, transceivers should be designed with suitable frequency, which attenuates less when passing through coal block (Balanis, 1973; Reagor, 1997). Based on the findings of the experimental results, as described in Chapter 2, a frequency of 457 kHz is selected for designing the transceiver to locate the trapped miner. The developed system is named as “Detecting System for Underground Mine Worker.”