Objective A coal mine is inherently a dangerous place to work and ever how good the safety record of a mine the penalty for complacency can be severe. Delay in analysing and treating incipient colliery methane problems can mean that potentially hazardous situations are allowed to develop. Colliery personnel, when confronted with a problem, are frequently faced with conflicting advice, incomplete information and pressure for immediate response. Such factors are not conducive to effective decision making. The aim of this project is to demonstrate that a colliery based methane diagnostics program has the potential to provide safety and ventilation officials at the mine with expert advice and thus help them to react, rapidly, positively and accurately as and when problems arise.An in depth study of methane control and the problems faced by ventilation staff has been carried out. The results of this investigation have highlighted particular areas of concern and problems common to many collieries. These have been classified into three main areas, namely, poor drainage capture, low air quantity and high methane emission. These rules have been built into an expert system shell called Leonardo and the program so formed called HELPDRAIN. The shell also includes the ability to run external programs from within it.In particular, the program will be aimed at enhancing the problem solving capabilities of the safety engineer, the colliery ventilation officer and the firedamp drainage officer. It is anticipated that the knowledge will be structured to address four basic problems, these are:(i) Gradual rise in airway methane concentration.(ii) Rapid rise in airway methane concentration.(iii) Loss of purity in the drained gas.(iv) Reduction of methane flow in the drainage range.The object of any consultation will be to highlight symptoms, isolate possible causes and prescribe effective remedial measures. Programme(s) ECSC-WORKSAFE C - First joint research programme (ECSC) "Safety in the European Coal and Steel Community industries", 1989-1993 Topic(s) 2.2 - Explosions Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme Data not available Coordinator British Coal plc EU contribution No data Address Ashby Road Stanhope Bretby DE15 0QD Burton upon Trent United Kingdom See on map Total cost No data
