Experimental Study on the Escape Velocity of Miners during Mine Fire Periods

The purpose of this study is to accurately calculate the escape velocity of miners under different roadway conditions during mine fire periods. The experiment to examine escape velocity was carried out in the roadway of the Mu Chengjian Coal Mine. In the experiment, the relationships between the miner escape velocity and the inclination of the roadway, the area of the accessible section of the roadway, and the average wind velocity of the roadway were obtained through single factor analysis, and two multiple regression equations of the escape velocity were developed through multivariable linear regression analysis. The escape velocities of the miners were then predicted, and the error was analyzed with multiple regression equations. The experimental results show that the miner escape velocity decreases with an increase in the absolute value of the inclination of the roadway and increases with an increase of the accessible section area of the roadway and the average wind velocity of the roadway. In addition, the multiple regression equations have the strongest significance if the independent variables are the inclination of the roadway, the accessible section area of the roadway, and the type of roadway, and the contribution rate of the inclination of the roadway to the escape velocity is the highest. The predicted results calculated by the multiple regression equations are close to the experimental data, and the prediction errors are less than 10%. Consequently, we conclude that the multiple regression equations can be used to predict the miner escape velocity during periods of mine fires.