Jet-engine-based units for cleaning transport media and thawing frozen soil at mining, metallurgical, and transportation facilities

Abstract

In recent years, it has become much more difficult to deal with the adhesion and freezing of moist overburden or soil during mining and transport operations due to the increase in the volume of the various materials being mined and transported — coal, ore, fluxes, structural materials, etc. The most productive and effective methods to deal with the sticking and freezing of soil and rock are gasdynamic methods. These methods employ high-speed jets of hot gases from jet engines and can be 15–30 times more productive than mechanical methods and machinery. Proceeding on the basis of calculations, completed studies, and field tests, the Gortekhtrans Department of Research Institute for Problems of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly (NIIKMA) has developed several highly efficient units that employ this technology.