Faculty Research
- Sukumar Bandopadhyay, Professor, Ph.D., P.E.
- Mine ventilation, mining methods, operations research, arctic mining, mine surveying, and mine planning
- Gang Chen, Professor, Ph.D., P.E.
- Rock mechanics in mining and civil construction, mine ground control, rock blasting, frozen ground engineering, GIS application in mining
- Rajive Ganguli, Associate Professor, Ph.D., P.E.
- Application of numerical techniques in mining and related fields, such as computational intelligence, statistical process control, geostatistics, time series analysis, other operations research methods as well as computer-aided mine design
- Terril Wilson, Assistant Professor, Ph.D., P.E.
- Mineral processing, coal preparation, mine environmental engineering, mine design and mine permitting
Facilities
Mineral Industry Research Laboratory (MIRL) is a well-equipped coal laboratory is devoted to research and service activities on the characterization, petrography, distribution, and preparation of Alaska's coals. The laboratory facilities at MIRL include: Mineral Processing Lab, Hydrometallurgy Lab, Electrochemistry Lab, Analytical Lab, and a Coal Lab.
Coal Preparation Laboratory
The laboratory capabilities include the following: coal analysis, coal petrology, vitrinite reflectance as a measure of rank, washability analysis (heavy liquid separation), crushing circuits, sizing equipment, (tables, jigs, spirals, and water-only cyclones), froth flotation, dewatering circuits, and hydrothermal treatment. The major pieces of equipment include Fisher Coal Analyzer 490 for proximate analyses, Leitz Vario-Othomat microscope, crushers, pulverizers, screens, hardgrove grindability mill, Coal hydrothermal treatment facility, concentrating tables, batch flotation cells, classifying cyclone, jigs, spirals, water-only cyclones. Recent upgrade includes the acquisition of TGA from U.S. DOE.
Mineral Preparation Engineering Laboratory
Laboratory capabilities include: Crushing, grinding, sizing classification, wet gravity concentration, froth flotation, magnetic and electrostatic separation, chemical analysis of ores, concentrates and tailings, flow rate measurements, pulp density measurements and heavy liquid separations. The major pieces of Equipment include jaw crusher, roll crusher, cone crusher, pulverizer, ring grinder, ball mills, Ro-tap sieve shaker, bond grindability mill, sieves, vibrating screens, static screens, jigs, spiral, hydrocyclones, tables, flotation cells (Denver), magnetic separators, electrostatic separators, Franz magnetic separator and atomic absorption (Perkin Elmer). Recent upgrade since 2001 includes the acquisitions of an electronic balance, the SWECO screen and the Tyler Sieves.
Rock Mechanics Laboratory
The Rock Mechanics laboratory is used for conducting experiments and tests on rock and soil samples under various environmental conditions, for both teaching and research purposes. The major piece of equipment in the laboratory is a rock testing machine with a loading capacity of 330,000 lbs. The testing machine includes an environmental chamber and a fully computerized control and data acquisition system. Other equipment in the laboratory include a tensile strength testing machine with a loading capacity of 55,000 lbs, a direct shear testing apparatus, and several field testing and monitoring instruments. The digital control and data acquisition system was recently upgraded in the fall of 2001. In addition, a creep testing frame with a capacity of 100,000 lbs and an Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity (UPV) testing system were added to the laboratory in 2001 and 2004 respectively.
Rock Drilling and Rock Core Preparation Laboratory
The laboratory is equipped with a rock coring machine, a rock saw and a grinding machine. The laboratory is primarily used to prepare specimens for testing and experiments to be conducted in the Rock Mechanics Laboratory. In addition, the rock coring machine has been instrumented allowing precise measurement of several drilling parameters for detailed drilling experiments. The grinding machine and the rock saw were overhauled in 2002 and 2005.
Computer Laboratory
The computer lab is a multipurpose lab used by all students of the department (Mining and Geological Engineering. A network of 6 PC computers is linked to the UAF domain. There are software packages available for word processing, drawing, scanning, and the internet. The lab is also used by students for classes that require the use of software packages specific to certain areas such as ArcGIS, AutoCAD, FORTRAN90, ERDAS Imaging, ERMapper, and MATLAB. The major pieces of equipment include 6 Dell Dimension 2350 computers, a high-capacity networked LaserJet printer and various software packages. All the computers were newly replaced after 2001.
Mine Design Laboratory
The mine design lab is dedicated for Mining Engineering students that wish to use specific mine design software for their mine design project during their senior year. It is also used to teach courses such as MIN 481 and 482 that require use of design software. The major pieces of equipment include 3 Dell PC’s and a HP Color laser jet printer. The major software includes VULCAN 5.0, TECHBASE, MATLAB (2 licenses), Neural Network and Statistical Toolbox (1 license), NEUROSHELL2 (2 licenses) and ISAIIS. The equipment and software packages are recent upgrade after 2001. In addition, new furniture was added.
Mine Ventilation Laboratory
The Mine Ventilation Laboratory has the most advanced instruments for the measurements of atmospheric environmental conditions (gas, dust, heat and humidity velocity and pressure of air) in mines. The unique feature of the laboratory is a mine model (as two mine airways in parallel). Two fans are of centrifugal type and blow air into the airways. The fans can be operated in parallel. A "CONSPEC Senturion 500 Mine Ventilation monitoring and control system" which is an integral part of the ventilation laboratory has been installed for remote and continuous monitoring of mine environment. In 2001, a ventilation educator system was purchased and added to the lab.
Mine Surveying Laboratory
The laboratory contains the most up-to-date surveying equipment for surface and underground mine surveying. This laboratory provides convenient first-hand exposure to mine surveying for students enrolled in mining and geological engineering programs. The major pieces of equipment include total stations, digital theodolites, transits, EDMs and GPS systems.
