Development of Wireless Sensor Network for Measurement of Load on Supports

Abstract

A critical review of Load cells used for ground behavior monitoring in underground mines along with emphasis on better real-time data acquisition from this device is presented. This area has fueled the recent researches on deployment of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) for data acquisition. Moreover, the traditional methods are tedious and have a scope of malfunction due to difficult Geo-mining conditions/environment. By implementing WSN in mine, these limitations can be overcome and can be useful for prediction of the upcoming disasters like roof falls. These systems can be the virtual guides for the miners for improved safety. Many investigations with various instruments were conducted by NIT-Rourkela in underground coal mines. WSN is developed for monitoring of ground behavior through the load cell sensor in the laboratory and its application in the field.
In this work, the Vibrating Wire type Load cell of 50 T is tested in laboratory up to applied load of 17 tonnes from compression testing machine. The Developed Wireless sensor network varies 32% with the conventional readout unit. The developed wireless system continuously measures the load and makes it available at an interval of every 5 sec. When the loads on supports exceed certain limit, an alert or warning message is transferred to the authorized people.