VUMA Software has launched the latest version of VUMA3D-network, its Windows-based software package for mine ventilation, cooling and environment control for deep hard-rock mines. VUMA3D-network 2.0 builds on the previous version to offer the local mining industry several unique new features. VUMA, an acronym for Ventilation of Underground Mine Atmospheres, was developed by local mining experts to assist mine designers to manage and mitigate the high heat loads encountered deep below the surface of South African hard-rock mines.

The software solves airflow, heat flow and pollutant distributions interactively throughout a ventilation circuit. Analysis of ventilation networks is now made significantly easier than before through the ease-of-use of this state-of-the-art engineering package. The programme can be used both as a planning tool and to verify the environmental performance parameters of operational mines. Wynand Marx, the VUMA Software Director said: “Thirteen years of continuous development has now brought us to the next version this pioneering software. In addition to order-of-magnitude improvements in ease of use and drastically enhanced 3D graphics, VUMA3D-network 2.0 incorporates some truly innovative features that will facilitate planning and verification of the environmental parameters in an operational mine and boost productivity. This windows-based software makes it extremely easy to build a network on a graphical screen and it is just as easy to import a mine design from other graphics programmes.”

Differentiating features include:

•         Uniquely specialised and verified modelling algorithms for most production zone types and development headings
•         Verified heat models accounting for broken rock and face advance
•         Rock, vehicle fleet and fan libraries
•         Easy-to-use category based input
•         An intelligent on-screen hint system
•         An improved reporting capability with multi-editing functionality, design checking criteria and effective summary reporting
•         A user-friendly help function providing relevant links throughout the system, which adds a high level of technical value
•         Billboards
•         An automatic back-up facility

“VUMA was first conceptualised in the mid-90s when it became clear that the industry needed a new level of mine ventilation software,” Marx says. “This software has opened the door for mine designers to enter an entirely new realm of mine planning, via on-screen graphics that were simply not available anywhere before.”