Statistical Modeling of Spontaneous Combustion in Industrial-Scale Coal Stockpiles

Abstract

Companies consuming large amounts of coal should work with coal stocks in order to not face problems due to production delays. The industrial-scale stockpiles formed for the aforementioned reasons cause environmental problems and economic losses for the companies. This study was performed in a coal stock area of a large company in Konya, which uses large amounts of coal in its manufacturing units. The coal stockpile with 5 m width, 10 m length, 3 m height, and having 120 tons of weight was formed in the coal stock area of the company. The inner temperature data of the stockpile was recorded by 17 temperature sensors placed inside the stockpile at certain points. Additionally, the data relating to the air temperature, air humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind velocity, and wind direction that are the parameters affecting the coal stockpile were also recorded. A statistical model applicable for a spontaneous combustion event was developed during this study after applying multi-regression analyses to the data recorded in the stockpile during the spontaneous combustion event. The correlation coefficients obtained by the developed statistical model were measured approximately at a 0.95 level. Thus, the prediction of temperature variations influential in the spontaneous combustion event of the industrial-scale coal stockpiles will be possible.

Internet-based monitoring and prediction system of coal stockpile behaviors under atmospheric conditions

“…The general sum of the measured data became 14,278. Manually recorded measurements taken in April, May, June, July, and August months of year 2006 were used for training and adjusting stage of stockpile behavior prediction system under different atmospheric conditions (Ozdeniz 2009). …”

The Relationship Between the Natural Compaction and the Spontaneous Combustion of Industrial-scale Coal Stockpiles

“…Within this context, temperatures at 17 different locations distributed in two levels inside the stockpile were measured between April 17 and August 10 in 2006. Moreover, since weather temperature, weather humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind velocity, and direction are the factors affecting coal stockpiles, these quantities were also continuously collected and a different study on the relationship between temperature and these parameters was completed by the same author group (Ozdeniz, 2009;Ozdeniz et al, 2008). During this study, 14,278 measurements were obtained from the same stockpile, 11,033 of which were the temperature data and the rest (3,245 of them) were for the parameters of weather temperature, weather humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind velocity, and direction that affect the behavior of the stockpile.…”