Incorporating Changing Duty Cycles in CM-Shuttle Car Matching Using Discrete Event Simulation: A Case Study

Abstract

Ignoring changing duty cycles result in equipment mismatch which increases operating cost and misallocation of resources. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of changing duty cycles on the optimal shuttle car fleet size used to mine a particular panel width. A room and pillar mining system is modelled using discrete event simulation and validated using data from a real mine. Experimental analysis is conducted to evaluate the effect of ignoring changing duty cycle in a 17-entry coal panel. Changing duty cycle is accounted for by determining the optimal fleet size in defined segments within the panel. The study shows that, for the 17-entry panel studied, a fleet of four shuttle cars is optimal for the entire panel when changing duty cycle is not accounted. However, by accounting for changing duty cycle, a fleet size of four is only optimal for 80% of the defined segments.

Department(s)

Mining Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

Discrete event simulation; Duty-cycle; Experimental analysis; Fleet sizes; Optimisations; Panel width; Shuttle car; Room and pillar mining; Shuttle car-continuous miner matching

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1754-890X; 1754-8918

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2017 Inderscience, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 May 2017

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