An Algorithm for the Efficient Placement of Air Quality Sensors in Underground Mines

Current regulations for the placement of air quality sensors in underground mines in the USA have been subject to varied debate, especially regarding sensor locations and spacings. Ideally, sensor placement in underground mines should initially focus on areas where dangerous air mixtures are likely to be, such as along beltways or at the working face. Beyond this, however, lies a concern about the lack of guidelines for the placement of non-regulatory, fixed air quality monitors in underground mines. As more operations turn to real-time air quality monitoring, any configuration of sensors should consider a near-even distribution of sensors throughout these areas to support mine-scale estimation and monitoring of airborne contamination distributions. We present an algorithm for the efficient placement of air quality sensors (EPAQS) in underground mines that provides an optimized spatial distribution of sensors when considering the effects of the ventilation network’s airflow. This algorithm provides suggested placements of air quality sensors in underground mining environments to provide an even statistical coverage of the ventilation system for future work in mine-scale contamination distribution estimation using spatial statistics.