Assessment of susceptibility of coal to spontaneous combustion in OKR

Abstract

Spontaneous combustion of coal mass represents a considerable health hazard of workers and endangering mining operations, which is often connected with a failure of coal mining and costs of endogenous fire suppression. Prompt recognition of spontaneous combustion plays a very important role in deep working coal seams prone to spontaneous combustion. The susceptibility of coal to a spontaneously combustible process is considered as a feature of coal mass that can be specified by a laboratory test. Since seventies of the last century in OKR (Ostrava-Karvina Coal Field) methods according to the author Olpinski and the oxidation method under adiabatic conditions have already been used to verify the tendency of coal to spontaneous combustion. Later the method of pulse calorimetry and the CPT (Crossing Point Temperature) method were used for the OKR coal. Experimentally the method according to the author Veselovskij was verified. The presented paper describes the objective methods, their technical performance and criteria of assessment of susceptibility of coal to spontaneous combustion.