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Abstract
The illumination systems in underground coal mines in India, generally operating in unfavourable, hazardous, and restricted environments, are badly in need of updating and revamping as they play a vital role in mine safety and productivity. Moreover, person-to-person communication in underground coal mines is very inadequate. In view of limited resources, the provision of illumination and communication using the same infrastructure forms an attractive proposition. As wireless communication is not a viable alternative because of the high attenuation profile there, wired personal communication employing the proposed DC distribution system along with LED illumination proves to be a very efficient and economical approach. The proposed technique establishes the design and implementation of the very low voltage DC (LVDC) power distribution system especially for mine illumination in consort with power line voice communication for underground coal mines. The environment of an Indian underground coal mine is simulated inside a sub-way tunnel and a suitable model designed. An experimental study is made to validate the technical aspects. The major contribution of the present work is a novel solution comprising of a low-cost mine-safe illumination system along with essential voice communication by the same underground infrastructure.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Mr. Mihir Baran Jana and Shoumik Dey, Intern and Soumajit Chowdhury, of Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, for their steadfast cooperation in the design and execution of the hardware set-up.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
R. N. Raul
Rabindra Nath Raul received his BTech from West Bengal University of Technology, India, in 2009 and MTech in electrical engineering from Calcutta University, India, in 2012. He is currently pursuing his PhD degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (ISM), Dhanbad, India. He is presently working as electrical engineering in Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India.
T. Maity
Tanmoy Maity received his graduation and master’s degree in electrical engineering from Calcutta University and his PhD from Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur. He has six years industrial and more than 18 years’ academic experience. He is currently working as a faculty member in the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, India. Email: [email protected]
S. Palit
Sarbani Palit received her BTech (Hons) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India in 1987 and MS degree from University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1989 and her PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India, in 1994. She has more than 23 years of academic experience. She is currently working as a faculty in computer vision and pattern recognition Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, India. Email: [email protected]