A transient model for predicting psychrometric properties of air at an intake shaft bottom of shallow depth working

Heat transfer in shallow mine inlets is affected by several factors. These include, among others, the surface climate, the cyclic variability of ground temperature in the top 20–25 m of ground, and virgin rock temperature. The conventional climate simulation models cannot be readily applicable due to cyclic variations and the resultant thermal flywheel effect. Therefore, it is necessary to incorporate recent air-temperature history as the input into the simulation where the variation in underground climate is directly dependent on the variations in atmospheric conditions on the surface. For this purpose, a method is proposed to calculate the surface temperature of rock surrounding the airway based on Duhamel’s theorem. A mathematical model is established to predict the psychrometric properties at the shaft bottom. The Python language is used for numerical calculations. The prediction results given by the presented underground climate simulation model are noted to be largely in agreement with the measured values at the shaft bottom.