Towards Optimizing a Personal Cooling Garment for Hot and Humid Deep Mining Conditions

Chady Al Sayed,Ludwig Vinches,Stéphane Hallé

doi:10.4236/ojop.2016.51005

Chady Al Sayed, Ludwig Vinches + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4236/ojop.2016.51005

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Abstract

Workers exposed to hot and humid conditions suffer from heat stress that affects their concentration and can potentially lead to an increase in workplace accidents. To minimize heat stress, protective equipment may be worn, such as personal cooling garments. This paper presents and discusses the performances, advantages and disadvantages of existing personal cooling garments, namely air-cooled, liquid-cooled, phase change, hybrid, gas expansion and vacuum desiccant cooling garments, and a thermoelectric cooling technology. The main objective is to identify the cooling technique that would be most suitable for deep mining workers. It appears that no cooling technology currently on the market is perfectly compatible with this type of mining environment. However, combining two or more cooling technologies into a single hybrid system could be the solution to an optimized cooling garment for deep mines.

Highlights

The mining industry has been an important part of the world economy for over a century
The exhaust gases were routed from the self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) into the fully equipped prototype firefighter ensemble and Kim et al concluded that by combining the Liquid-Cooled Garment (LCG) and air ventilation, the total performance time increases by approximately 82% [21]
In a humid environment such as that found in deep underground mines, the high humidity level will affect the cooling efficiency of an air-cooled garment that works by evaporating sweat

Summary

Introduction

The mining industry has been an important part of the world economy for over a century. With the increasing of the global demands in products and the innovation of technology, mining goes even deeper to meet the demands of materials [1]. Especially deep mines, miners face a hard work environment caused by high humidity levels (that can reach 80%) and high ambient temperatures. Among other things, these harsh conditions stem from air self-. (2016) Towards Optimizing a Personal Cooling Garment for Hot and Humid Deep Mining Conditions.

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