Abstract
-
Computational Fluid
Dynamics or CFD has become a
powerful tool to assist mining
engineers and find solutions to these problems.
CFD is a branch of fluid mechanics
that embraces mathematics and numerical
solution, by computational methods, of the
governing equations which describe the
motion of fluid flow, the Navier-Stokes
equations, continuity and any additional
conservation equations, such as energy or
species concentrations.
Nowadays high performance computers
are used together with sophisticated CFD
code such as ANSYS Fluent or CFX to
perform the calculations required to model
the interaction of liquids and gases. For
mining related ventilation, health and safety
problems, this would typically require visits
to the mine site to discuss the problem
with the ventilation engineers and examine
relevant data to clarify any technical issues
before developing the CFD models. The
base CFD model has to be validated against
field survey data before