| This study is a comprehensive attempt to develop and test procedures for optimization of equipment configuration, system layout and operating parameters of underground coarse-coal slurry haulage systems. Previous efforts in this area have been limited to either specific configurations or sub-optimal solutions of general problems. The need for a versatile tool, that is not limited to specific system layouts, mining methods, or equipment configurations, but capable of adaptation to new developments in slurry transport technology and of obtaining global optimum solutions, is satisfied in this study.;Given the stochastic operating characteristics of a specific mining system, and the layout of a feasible hydrotransport system, the model can be used to determine the equipment configuration and operating regime that minimize the overall unit cost of coal haulage.;The optimization tool, a haulage system model, developed after a thorough systems analysis, is based on a stochastic dynamic programming formulation. The stochastic aspects of underground coal production activities are represented by semi-Markov processes. The formulation and the structure of the model are general enough to handle design problems involving slurry transport systems fed by multiple face and multiple mining methods. |
