A simulation model for truck-shovel operation

A truck-shovel mining system is a flexible mining method commonly used in surface mines. Both simulation and queuing models are commonly used to model the truckshovel mining operation. One fundamental problem associated with these types of models is that most of the models handle the truck haulage system as macroscopic simulation models, which ignore the fact that a truck as an individual vehicle unit dynamically interacts not merely with other trucks in the system but also with other elements of the traffic network. Some important operational factors, such as the bunching effect and the influence of the traffic intersections, are either over simplified or ignored in such a macroscopic model. This thesis presents a developed discrete-event truck-shovel simulation model, referred to as TSJSim (Truck and Shovel JaamSim Simulator), based on a microscopic traffic and truck-allocation approach. The TSJSim simulation model may be used to evaluate the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the truck-shovel mining system in an open pit mine. TSJSim considers a truck as an individual traffic vehicle unit that dynamically interacts with other trucks in the system as well as other elements of the traffic network. TSJSim accounts for the bunching of trucks on the haul routes, practical rules at intersections, multiple decision points along the haul routes as well as the influence of the truck allocation on the estimated queuing time. TSJSim also offers four truck-allocation modules: Fixed Truck Assignment (FTA), Minimising Shovel Production Requirement (MSPR), Minimising Truck Waiting Time (MTWT) and Minimising Truck Semi-cycle Time (MTSCT) including Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Frozen Dispatching Algorithm (FDA)