Automated System for Gas Measurement in Underground Works

This innovative system improves health and safety conditions for workers in underground building works, ensuring optimal air quality at all times.

When building underground, forced ventilation systems are used to dilute gases and renew the air within tunnels. This is a provisional solution, based on flexible ducts and fans located at the mouth of the tunnel, and which may differ based on the building process, the machines to be used, and the number of people working within the tunnel.

The fans used by these systems need a large amount of power and consume huge amounts of energy, and are normally activated and controlled manually. Air quality within the tunnel is monitored by regular measurements carried out by the workers themselves.

In this context, the eTúnel-Aire project streamlines ventilation control through the development and implementation of a system for monitoring the air quality within the tunnel, the setting of automatic ventilation algorithms, and the implementation of a SCADA system for supervision, control and management of the ventilation system.

This system enables automatic gas measurement and dilution, thereby ensuring that all workers enjoy optimum conditions of health and safety for the duration of the building works.