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Design and Implementation of Solar-Powered Optical Fiber-Based Illumination and Communication System for Underground Coal Mines

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Abstract

Mine safety and quality of life of miner working in underground mines depend to a large extent on mine illumination and communication. The provisioning of reliable, safe, and cost-effective illumination is critical, particularly in underground gassy coal mines. To prevent firedamp explosion by electrical switching operation in coal mining industry requires implementing intrinsically safe illumination circuit. The luminaire design also needs to be certified and installed properly. The current illumination systems installed inside mines require a lot of energy which is obtained from nonrenewable resources. In this work, the design and implementation of solar-powered optical fiber-based illumination are studied and implemented in the Jhanjra underground coal mine, Eastern Coalfield Limited, and a Li-Fi-based communication system for underground coal mines is proposed. Silicate optical fibers of various core diameters and numerical apertures are characterized for illumination applications and their efficiencies are reported. The possibility of achieving optical fiber-based solar, laser, and hybrid illuminations in underground mines is discussed. The design and fabrication of a Fresnel lens-based solar tracker for solar illumination are also presented. The optical fiber-based illumination system is installed in an underground coal mine and the illumination of over 70 lux is achieved at the work plane. Finally, optical fiber-based illumination and simultaneous basic Li-Fi communication are demonstrated and will be beneficial to the underground coal mining industry.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge General Manager and mine personnel at Jhanjra coal mine, Eastern Coalfield Limited. Mr. Uttam Kumar Ghara is acknowledged for all the support during project implementation and optical fiber installation in underground coal mine. Mr. Sandip Maity, design engineer of Qlite Electronics Controls Pvt. Ltd, is acknowledged for discussions on the simulation using Dialux Software.

Funding

The authors received support from R&D division Coal India Limited (CIL/R&D/01/66/2017) for sponsoring the project as well as DST-FIST facility, Department of Physics, IIT Kharagpur.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Advanced Technology Development Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, 721302, India

    Sarbojit Mukherjee

  2. Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, 721302, India

    Dushasan Kundu & B. N. Shivakiran Bhaktha

  3. Department of Mining Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, 721302, India

    Khanindra Pathak

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  1. Sarbojit Mukherjee
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Correspondence to Khanindra Pathak or B. N. Shivakiran Bhaktha.

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Mukherjee, S., Kundu, D., Pathak, K. et al. Design and Implementation of Solar-Powered Optical Fiber-Based Illumination and Communication System for Underground Coal Mines. Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration 40, 793–805 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42461-023-00755-9

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