Design of Haul Road Illumination System for an Opencast Coal Mining Project—A Case Study

Abstract

This article presents a design of an effective haul road illumination system for a mechanized opencast coal mining project. It included an illumination survey of the existing lighting system of the haul road followed by analysis and improvement measures, which include a suitable design plan for an illumination system using DIALux software. The illumination survey was conducted to assess the existing illumination level of the haul road. The methodology involved calculation of horizontal illuminance in a grid fashion, which involved a maximum number of measuring points for achieving better accuracy. A model of haul road illumination system was designed in the DIALux and simulated that gave improved results compared to the existing system of haul road illumination. The model was designed according to CIE 140/EN 13201 illumination standard and the existing design was as per Directorate General of Mines Safety (DGMS) standards. The luminaires used for the design were 400 W high pressure sodium vapor (HPSV) lamps. The simulation was performed by varying the luminaires’ parameters; that is, pole distance, height, inclination, light overhang, etc. The result of the simulation showed that uniformity of light could be achieved by maintaining the effective pole height at 15 m and inclination of luminaires at 15°, by keeping the pole spacing at 40-m intervals. The average to minimum value of the illuminance (uniformity ratio) was obtained from the design. It was also noted that a wet surface resulted in a lower uniformity ratio (0.03) compared to a dry surface (0.10).

• haul road
• illuminance
• opencast coal mine
• reflectance
• uniformity ratio

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Olive Chowdhury

Olive Chowdhury (1990) is currently pursuing his M.Tech. on the topic “Illumination Design in Opencast Coal Mining Projects” in the Department of Mining Engineering at National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, Odisha, India. He received his B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from West Bengal University of Technology, India, in 2011. His research interests are illumination design and modeling, electrical machines and drives, and power and control systems.

Debi Prasad Tripathy

Debi Prasad Tripathy (1966) is working as Professor in the Department of Mining Engineering at the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, India. His areas of teaching and research are Mine Environment and Safety Engineering, Mine Planning, and Computer Applications. He has authored six books and 130 technical papers in international/ national journals and conferences. He is member, Editorial Board, International Journal of Industrial Pollution Control, Journal of Geology and Mining Research, and Open Journal of Air Pollution (USA). He is Fellow of IE (I), Chattered Engineer (IE, India), MEAI, MMGI, LISTE and FUWA.