Classification of Structural Complexity for Mine Ventilation Networks

The mine ventilation system is most important and technical measure for ensuring safety production in mines. The structural complexity of a mine ventilation network can directly affect the safety and reliability of the underground mining system. Quantitatively justifying the degree of complexity can contribute to providing a deeper understanding of the essential characteristics of a network. However, so far, there is no such a model which is able to simply, practically, reasonably, and quantitatively determine or compare the structural complexity of different ventilation networks. In this article, by analyzing some typical parameters of a mine ventilation network, we conclude that there is a linear functional relationship among five key parameters (number of ventilation network branches, number of nodes, number of independent circuits, number of independent paths, and number of diagonal branches). Correlation analyses for the main parameters of ventilation networks are conducted based on SPSS. Based on these findings, a new evaluation model for the structural complexity of ventilation network (which is represented by C) has been proposed. By combining SPSS classification analyses results with the characteristics of mine ventilation networks, standards for the complexity classification of mine ventilation systems are put forward. Using the developed model, we carried out analyses and comparisons for the structural complexity of ventilation networks for typical mines. Case demonstrations show that the classification results correspond to the actual situations. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 21–34, 2015