With vehicles frequently found in mines and being a dominant fire source, vehicle fires will present a considerable risk in the mining industry. The potential ignition sources, the amount and configuration of combustible components will vary from vehicle to vehicle depending on the vehicle category and the size of the vehicle. This paper presents a study on ignition conditions and fire behaviour on various types of mining vehicles involving flammable or combustible liquids, where data from earlier fire experiments, incident reports and fuel inventories on different vehicle categories are applied. It addresses questions such as: what potential ignition sources can be found on different vehicle categories? What flammable or combustible liquid may posea severe risk with respect to ignition and the continued fire development? It was found that the most common ignition sources were the exhaust/turbocharger, engine, or any other hot surface in the engine bay, which ignite oil/hydraulic oil, diesel, ethylene glycol, transmission oil or oily rags through hot surface ignition.
Last Updated: 24/05/2022 03:09:38pm