The Use of Thermovision in the Monitoring of Coal Storage Facilities as an Element of Safety Management in the Warehouse Management

Abstract

Spontaneuos combustion (or self-ignition) is the initiation of the burning process without an external source of ignition, such as a flame or spark. This phenomenon often occurs during storage of such substances as hay, straw as well as coal or culm. Like any other type of fire, in addition to potential material losses, it also poses a threat to people. Thanks to the systematic monitoring of landfills using a thermal imaging camera, the dangerous effects of this phenomenon can be avoided. The article presents photos taken on a coal storage site where, as a result of both prolonged heat and wind exposition, a self-ignition phenomenon occurred that was detected early due to the use of thermovision.

Remote detection and monitoring of post-mining heat island

“…Several investigations of coal waste heaps and tailings ponds with high temperatures are described in the literature, carried out by various methods, mainly by direct methods. Fire can be identified by examining the presence of emitted gases, for example, by gas chromatography of collected samples (Fabiańska et al, 2018;Nádudvari et al, 2021b;Karacan et al, 2021;Nádudvari et al, 2022;Singh et al, 2022) or by measuring the temperature directly in a heap spot-wise with a pyrometer (Kruszewski et al, 2018;Allen et al, 2019;Protasov et al, 2021), or using thermal imaging cameras and thermal image analysis (Abramowicz and Chybiorz, 2019;Sobocińska and Sobociński, 2019;Nádudvari et al, 2020;Nádudvari et al, 2021a). However, these methods require researchers to be present in a hazardous area.…”