Lifelines are used to aid self-escape of underground miners, but they are difficult to find in low-visibility conditions of smoke, therefore a self-illuminating lifeline could facilitate miners in locating the lifeline. The detection distance, colour recognition, and miss rate for 10 subjects were determined for red-, green- and blue-lighted diffuse fibre-optic cables, used to create a lighted lifeline, and a traditional rope lifeline in a smoked-filled environment. The testing was conducted with and without a cap lamp. The use of a cap lamp resulted in all cases being undetected in 98.3% of trials. With the cap lamp off, there was no significant difference in the detection distance for blue- and green-lighted fibres; however, the miss rate for the green-lighted fibre was slightly higher. The red-lighted fibre was not detected in 93.3% of trials. The green- and blue-lighted fibres enabled the best visual performance, but subjects had difficulty correctly identifying the colour of the fibre. The lighted fibre-optic cable appears to have merit for improving self-escape from underground mines, and may have other mining and non-mining applications that include improving self-escape visibility.

中文翻译：

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地下矿井烟雾条件下自发光救生索的可探测性

救生索用于辅助井下矿工自逃生，但在低能见度的烟雾条件下很难找到，因此自发光救生索可以方便矿工定位救生索。确定了 10 名受试者的检测距离、颜色识别和未命中率，这些电缆用于在充满烟熏的环境中创建发光救生索和传统绳索救生索的红光、绿光和蓝光漫射光纤电缆。测试是在带帽灯和不带帽灯的情况下进行的。使用帽灯导致所有病例在 98.3% 的试验中未被发现。关闭帽灯后，蓝光和绿光光纤的检测距离没有显着差异；然而，绿灯光纤的未命中率略高。在 93.3% 的试验中未检测到红光光纤。绿光和蓝光纤维具有最佳的视觉表现，但受试者难以正确识别纤维的颜色。发光的光纤电缆似乎具有改善地下矿井自逃生的优点，并且可能具有其他采矿和非采矿应用，包括提高自逃生能见度。