A COMPARISON OF WELL-ACCEPTED TRACER GAS SAMPLING METHODS UTILIZED IN UNDERGROUND MINES WITH SOLID-PHASE MICROEXTRACTION (SPME) FIBERS THROUGH LABORATORY TESTING OF SULFUR HEXAFLUORIDE

摘要

Tracer gases have been utilized successfully in a variety of industries, each with specific releasing and sampling methods. The various attributes of tracer gases are dependent on the industry the tracers are utilized in. Tracers must be chemically and thermally stable, safe, odorless, detectable at low concentrations, have a low background concentration, and should not be naturally occurring in the environment if they are utilized in underground mining applications (Thimons et al., 1974). In addition, the tracer gas should be inexpensive, non-corrosive, non-toxic, easily transportable, readily attainable, and non-radioactive (Kennedy et al., 1987). Sulfur hexafluoride (SF_6) met many of these above requirements and therefore was introduced as an ideal tracer gas to use in mining industry in the early 1970's (Thimons er al., 1974). Due to the nature of underground mining including complicated geometry, irregular flows, turbulent flows, obstructed airways, and leakages it is difficult to use conventional anemometer and smoke tube techniques to accurately measure the effectiveness of ventilation controls (Thimons et al., 1974; Klinowski and Kennedy, 1991).