Effect of Seasonal Variations in Air Temperature on Spontaneous Combustion of Waste Dumps

The article describes the observation data on temperature at a place of spontaneous combustion at a waste dumps via holes drilled to a depth of 2.5 m. The 4 years-long measurements made it possible to determine the temperature change patterns in coal-bearing waste in the surface layer, as well as at the depths of 0.5, 1.5 and 2.5 m depending on seasonal variations in air temperature. The temperature grows with depths in all holes. For this reason, at the hole length of 2.5 m, the efforts to size the source of spontaneous combustion depthward the waste dump failed. Within the observation period, the maximal temperature of rocks at the source was 500 °C.