New radar system to increase coal mine safety

A new radar system will increase safety in open-cut coal mines by detecting possible locations of rock failure. The system can detect rock movements as small as one millimetre that are often precursors to wall collapse.

The system has been developed by University of Queensland PhD student Bryan Reeves, with researchers Dr Glen Stickley, Dr David Noon and Prof Dennis Longstaff in the Cooperative Research Centre for Sensor Signal Processing
and Information Processing (CSSIP). The researchers were recognised with a research excellence award by the Australian Coal Association Research Program (ACARP) for the work, which is to be commercialised.

"Monitoring wall stability is critical for open cut mining. During mining there is a serious threat of wall failure, representing a danger to the personnel and equipment in close proximity to the highwall face," Mr Reeves said.

The new Slope Stability Radar has been tested in two operational coal mine sites in Australia. It operates as a stand alone system capable of withstanding strong winds, rain, dust, smoke and the vibrations of operating machinery nearby.

"A big advantage of the Slope Stability Radar over previous systems is that it does not require any mirrors or reflecting devices to be attached to the rock face during the monitoring. Movements are detected from natural reflections of radar signals by the rock," Mr Reeves said.

The radar is designed to be installed at one location up to 100 metres from the rock face and left in place for a period of hours or days to continuously monitor the stability of the highwall.

"We expect the system to substantially reduce the risk of injury to people and damage to equipment. Industry observers have commented that they see a need for this system at their mines," Mr Reeves said.

The Slope Stability Radar is expected to be available for commercial use in 2002.

The project was funded by the ACARP and conducted by CSSIP and the Cooperative Research Centre for Mining Technology and Equipment (CMTE). BHP was the industry monitor for this ACARP Project.

Pix of the slope stability radar are at the ftp site:
http://photos.cc.uq.edu.au/PNF:byName:/ScienceWriters/

Image: 1.jpg, Image:2 jpg and Image: 3.jpg: Caption: "The Slope Stability Radar (SSR) in operation at Moura Coalmine (Queensland)."

Image: 4.jpg Caption: "The Slope Stability Radar (SSR) in operation at Drayton Coalmine (NSW)."

For more information, contact: Bryan Reeves (telephone 07 3365 8312, email: reeves@cssip.uq.edu.au) or Jan King at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 1120/mobile 0413 601 248) or email: communications@mailbox.uq.edu.au.