Experimental study on precise control air quantity on demand by the cooperation of multiple main fans in mine

Abstract

Due to the global energy crisis worsening, numerous businesses have prioritized energy conservation and consumption reduction. However, in mines with multiple main fans, the main fans' operation efficiency is low to meet the ventilation on-demand, and the ventilation system's energy consumption is very high. This paper proposes an energy-saving control strategy for ventilation on demand with multiple fans network, which can save much energy in mines. We use the circuit method to calculate the operating condition parameters required for the joint control of multiple main fans by analyzing the influence features of multiple fans' mutual disturbance. We study the advantages and shortcomings of the traditional fan control method and create control strategy expressions for multiple fans. The two-step fan control strategy uses the adjusting wheel blades' angle method to determine the high-efficiency operating angle and the modulating fan speed method for accurate air quantity control. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the control strategy in ventilation on demand and fan energy-saving are verified on the three-dimensional complex ventilation pipe network experimental platform. The research results show that, compared to the two typical fan control strategies, our control strategy can save energy by 27.74% and 26.92%, respectively. If this strategy is applied to a mine with two main fans rated power of 500 kW, it can save energy 2,429,806 kW per year, saving USD 442.69 per day or USD 161,582.1 per year. The payback period for this strategy is approximately 14.1 months. Therefore, this research can provide a promising step towards intelligent control of air quantity on-demand while indicating enormous potential for energy savings in mine ventilation systems.