Design of fire scenarios for Australian underground hard rock mines - Applying data from full-scale fire experiments

One of the most significant tools when designing fire safety in an underground mine is the design fire methodology. This paper presents a number of design fire scenarios which were developed from risk assessments and risk analysis where a deterministic approach was implemented and where the results from earlier full-scale fire experiments in underground mines and analysis were included in the process. The developed scenarios showed that for scenarios, in which ventilation flow was in the same direction as the fuel continuity, continued fire spread to all major components were provided and longer and intermittent periods which resulted in high heat release rates resulted, would present a considerable risk to underground personnel. It was also found that the inclination of the decline has little influence on the resulting heat release rate - despite the flame tilt - and that the design of the mining vehicles was found to effectively delay or even prevent the ignition of adjacent fuel items in a number of cases. The design fire scenarios developed will provide a key tool when evaluating fire protection measures in an underground mine.