DESIGN OF ILLUMINATION SYSTEM FOR AN OPENCAST COAL MINING PROJECT–A CASE STUDY

Abstract

The scientific work documented in this thesis was carried out, as a part of the research investigation, sponsored by a major coal company, to create a safe visual working environment for a mechanized opencast coal mine. The research investigations were carried out with the following objectives: conduct illumination survey & check the adequacy of lighting vis-à-vis DGMS /International standards at: Different places of work in the mine.Different HEMMs. Design of appropriate illumination systems based on illumination requirement for: Haul road,Overburden(OB) transport road,Dump yard,Moving Coal & OB faces. The illumination study was performed in Kusmunda opencast project, SECL,Bilaspur. It included an illumination survey of the existing lighting system at haul road, dump yard,coal & OB face followed by analysis & improvement measures. The lux meter used for the survey was Metravi1332. The illumination models for various working places in mine were developed using DIALux. DGMS standard for opencast mine lighting was used for assessment and design of illumination systems. Haul & dump road lighting design was done as per CIE EN13201 standard, which is internationally used for road lighting. The design models resulted in significant improvement over the existing system. Also, improvement of lux level was obtained as compared to the existing lighting system. Based on the observations design of illumination systems for the mine following recommendations have been proposed to improve the visual level in the work places and are stated below: Installation of 150W HPSV luminaires for roads not exceeding length of 1 km and 250W HPSV luminaires for length exceeding 1 km and other installation details should follow the given design.Installation of Metal Halide luminaires for coal faces and HPSV for OB faces.Luminaires should be die cast aluminum built.Truck mounted illumination system can be used instead of fixed lighting system at coal face.