Pipe feeder

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A pipe feeder , also known as a multi-chamber pipe feeder, is a feed device for water or suspensions consisting of two or three chambers in mining technology . Tube feeders are used as an interface between two fluid circuits with different operating pressures. Depending on the number of tube chambers, a distinction is made between two-chamber and three-chamber tube feeders.

Basics and history

In mining and tunnel construction , liquids in the shaft have to be conveyed through pipes over height differences of 1000 meters and more. Depending on the depth , there is a hydrostatic pressure of over 100 bar at the lowest point of the duct . In order to be able to convey the liquid horizontally, this high pressure has to be reduced to a low operating pressure for economic and safety reasons. If the liquids are now moved in a closed system between surface and underground, the principle of communicating pipes can be used with the pipe feeder. The high static pressure of the water coming from the surface is used to pump the water from underground back to the surface. By using the pipe feeder, lifting work using high-pressure pumps can be largely dispensed with. A pipe feeder in the form of a two-chamber pipe feeder was used for the first time in the 1970s in a large-scale hydraulic mining test . However, these two-chamber tube feeders could not prevail, so that later a three-chamber tube feeder was used at the Zeche Hansa for the hydraulic conveyance of the coal mined by means of hydromechanical extraction . In the 1980s, a three-chamber tube feeder was used for the first time as a component in a weather cooling machine at the Heinrich-Robert colliery . Today only three-chamber tube feeders are used for the hydraulic conveyance of solids or for the exchange of hot and cold water. Three-chamber tube feeders have an energy efficiency of 97 percent.

construction

The tube feeder consists of two or three identical chambers, depending on the design. The chambers can be adapted in diameter, length and number of pressure levels to the corresponding operating conditions. The three pipe chambers are mounted horizontally one above the other at the installation site. A cold water valve bank is attached to one of the ends of each tube chamber. At the other end of each tube chamber, a hot water valve bank is mounted. In addition, there is a side-mounted valve for the high-pressure line and one for the low-pressure line at the chamber ends. The respective valves are connected to one another via vertically arranged distribution pipes. In total, each chamber is connected with four pipes. As a result, the pipe chambers are connected to the primary circuit and the secondary circuit via the distribution pipes. The valves are controlled via a control program. The function of the system can be monitored in an above-ground central location using a monitor.

function

The three tube chambers work staggered and are alternately filled with cold or hot water. First, all three chambers are filled with cold water. The chambers are then blocked against the shaft line (high pressure flow) by means of the main valves. Pressure equalization is now created in the chambers filled with cold water. The first tube chamber is then filled with hot water and the cold water is simultaneously pressed into the secondary circuit. There is minimal mixing at the points of contact between cold water and hot water. The cold water is now pressed from the next chamber into the secondary circuit by filling the chamber with hot water. At the same time, the first chamber filled with hot water is filled with cold water again and the hot water is pressed into the duct (high pressure return). After the chamber has been filled with cold water, pressure equalization is generated again in the chamber. The cold water is then pressed out of the third chamber into the secondary circuit by filling the chamber with hot water. At the same time, the third chamber, filled with hot water, is filled with cold water again and the hot water is pressed into the duct. This process is now repeated continuously, one chamber is filled with cold water and the warm water is pressed into the primary circuit, another chamber is filled with warm water and the cold water is pressed into the secondary circuit, the third chamber is filled in standby position. This mode of operation creates a quasi-continuous flow in both the high-pressure circuit and the low-pressure circuit.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Walter Bischoff , Heinz Bramann, Westfälische Berggewerkschaftskasse Bochum: The small mining dictionary. 7th edition, Verlag Glückauf GmbH, Essen, 1988, ISBN 3-7739-0501-7 .
  2. ↑ Volker Schacke: Development of the measures to keep the pits cool with special consideration of the deep, warm mines in the eastern Ruhr area. Dissertation at the Montan University Leoben, Leoben 2009, p. 252.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h Jens H. Utsch: Efficient underground cooling with the "Pressure Exchange System". In: GeoResources Portal Manfred König (Ed.): GeoResources Zeitschrift, No. 2, Duisburg 2016, ISSN 2364-8414, pp. I – II, 47–50.
  4. ↑ Reinhard Bauer: Failed innovations. Failures and technical change, Campus Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt / Main 2006, p. 160.
  5. ↑ a b c d e "Glück-auf", our coal can do more. In: DIE KÄLTE & Klimatechnik, No. 5, 2003, pp. 26–38.
  6. ↑ a b c SIEMAG TECBERG (ed.): 60 MW large cooling system with 4 PES systems. Technical information.
  7. ^ A b Karl-Heinrich Grote, Jörg Feldhusen : Dubbel paperback for mechanical engineering. 22 edition, Springer-Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg / New York 2007, ISBN 978-3-540-49714-1 , p. M 85.
  8. ↑ G. Mücke, J. Voss, H. Uhlig, W. Schlotte: Optimization of air conditioning systems. In: Commission of the European Communities (Ed.): Technical research coal. Research contract no. 7220-AC-125 final report, Bochum 1989, pp. 14–17, 39, 40.
  9. ↑ a b c d e f Ottmar Christian Siemag M-Tec2 GmbH: Three -chamber tube feeder . European Patent No. 07022438.1, Netphen 2007, pp. 1-8.
  10. ↑ a b c d e Reinhard Wesely: Mine safety at RAG. In: ISSA Mining (Ed.): Mining Report Glückauf 155, No. 1, 2019, p. 103.