Investigation on temperature control based on cooled mine compressed air for mine refuge chamber with high-temperature surrounding rock

Acceptable temperature is very important for mine refuge chamber (MRC) to ensure the safety of occupants. A novel temperature control scheme combining cold source storage with mine compressed air (MCA) was proposed for MRCs. An experiment was conducted to explore the characteristics of temperature controlling in a MRC via the MCA. Effects of several main factors such as initial surrounding rock temperature (ISRT), ventilation tem-perature (VT), ventilation rate (VR) and heat rate (HR) on the performance of temperature controlling in the MRC were numerically studied. Results show that: (1) In the MRC, the heat transfer process between the air and walls will reach a dynamic equilibrium within 0.5 h; (2) The ambient temperature in the MRC increases linearly with the square root of time from 1 h to 96 h, the gradient increases with VT and HR but decreases with ISRT and VR; (3) Ventilation with rate of 0.3 m3/min per capita and temperature of 20 degrees C can meet the temperature control requirements of a MRC located in the sandstone layer with the ISRT of 32.2 degrees C. An empirical formula for predicting ambient temperature and a ventilation parameter calculation method for meeting the temperature control goal of the MRC are obtained.