Using fuzzy PROMETHEE to select countries for developmental Aid

Wealthy nations continue to demonstrate their unwavering support to improving conditions and the general well-being of poor countries in spite of the recent economic crises. However, as developmental aid relatively shrinks, both Aid donors and recipient countries have shown keen interest in methodologies used in evaluating developmental assistance programs. Evaluation of aid programs is seen as a complex task mainly because of the several non-aid factors that tend to affect overall outcomes. Adding to the complexity are the subjective sets of criteria used in Aid evaluations programs. This paper proposes a two stage framework of fuzzy TOPSIS and sensitivity analysis to demonstrate how aid-recipient countries can be evaluated to deepen transparency, fairness, value for money and sustainability of such aid programs. Using the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) set of subjective criteria for evaluating aid programs; a numerical examplepre-defined by linguistic terms parameterized by triangular fuzzy numbers is provided to evaluate aid programs. Fuzzy PROMETHEE is used in the first stage to evaluate and rank aid-recipients followed by a comparative analysis with Fuzzy VIKOR and Fuzzy TOPSIS to ascertain an accurateness of the method used. A sensitivity analysis is further added that anticipates possible influences from lobbyists and examines the effect of that bias in expert ratings on the evaluation process. The result shows a framework that can be employed in evaluating aid effectiveness of recipient-countries

Open pit mine design and extraction sequencing by use of OR and AI concepts

sequence of mining blocks over short periods of time, has become more desirable in today's competitive and high risk mining world with low commodity prices. There have been various unsuccessful attempts to develop such a procedure, using operations research (OR) methods. The main reasons for the failure of these attempts are inadequacy of OR methods to model fully an open pit operation and excessive computational requirements of solution procedures. This paper presents a technique that is based on the dynamic programming of OR and machine learning-expert system concepts of artificial intelligence (AI). This technique provides an extraction sequence of mining blocks that aims to maximize the next present value while satisfying all technical and economical constraints of an open pit mine operation. Case studies showed that this method provides an effective tool for the mine planning engineer to generate various extraction sequences for various economical and technical factors within very short computational time. The development of an effective open pit mine scheduling procedure which will generate and evaluate the extraction. © 1995, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved

Reliability analysis of draglines' mechanical failures

W nowoczesnych kopalniach, w których wykorzystuje się różnego typu wysokiej klasy maszyny/sprzęt o wysokiej zdolności produkcyjnej i inwestycyjnej, takie jak koparki zgarniakowe, ważne jest aby maszyny te były obsługiwane w sposób niezawodny, zapewniający maksymalizację zysku. Dlatego też, zastosowanie analizy niezawodnościowej, która jest niezbędna do oceny niezawodności użytkowania i częstotliwości uszkodzeń, pozwala na planowanie czynności serwisowych pomagając utrzymać maszyny w stanie gotowości do pracy. W niniejszym artykule zamodelowano, na podstawie Procesu Odnowy (Renewal Process, RP), uszkodzenia mechaniczne dwóch koparek zgarniakowych. Podstawowe założenia RP o niezależność i identyczności rozkładu danych sprawdzono za pomocą wykresów funkcji autokorelacji. Oceny niezawodności dla różnych przedziałów czasowych dokonano według rozkładu najbardziej odpowiadającego danym, którym okazał się rozkład Weibulla. Dodatkowo, rozkładu tego użyto także do określenia przerw konserwacyjnych dla badanych maszyn. Na koniec analizowane koparki zgarniakowe porównano pod względem niezawodności.In modern mines that use different types of sophisticated machine/equipment with high production capacity and investment such as draglines, it is important that the machine should be operated in a reliable way in order to maximize profits. In this manner, the reliability analysis is essential to assess mission reliability and frequency of failure so that this information can be used to plan maintenance activities to help for keeping the machines at operational state. In this paper, mechanical failures of the two draglines have been modeled on the basis of Renewal Process (RP). Whether or not the data is independent and identically distributed which is the basic assumption of RP has been checked by use of Autocorrelation Function Plots. Reliability estimates for different time intervals have been made according to best-fit distribution which was found as Weibull. Additionally, the distribution has been also used for estimating the maintenance intervals of the machines. Finally, the draglines have been compared in terms of reliability

Ore body modeling at the Divrigi Iron Ore deposit

3rd Canadian Conference on Computer Applications in the Mineral Industry (CAMI 95) -- OCT 22-25, 1995 -- MONTREAL, CANADA…McGill Univ, Ecole Polytech Montreal, CI

Dragline maintenance data analysis using logarithmic scatterplot

Determining maintenance priorities, one of the Important tasks of maintenance departments, can be achieved by identifying and understanding the critical fault types in mining machinery. Logarithmic Scatterplot (LS) method has been recently utilized for the treatment of maintenance data for this purpose. In the present study, maintenance data of two draglines was analyzed using LS method. Careful analysis and interpretation of the field data by LS method, throws light on prioritizing the maintenance of mechanical and electrical subsystems of draglines under study. The boom, hoist rope and attachtnents, swing, drag and hoist machineries have been identified as priority components for the mechanical subsystem. Likewise, the drag, hoist, swing and propel motor and generator sets have been identified as priority components for the electrical sub-system.Elevli, S.; Ondokuz Mayis University, Industrial Engineering Department, Samsun, Turke

Underground haulage selection: Shaft or ramp for a small-scale underground mine

This paper deals with the selection of alternative accesses to a podiform chromite orebody in Turkey. The most important alternatives studied in a related project have been stated as a new vertical shaft and a ramp system. The comparison of these alternatives have been carried out on the basis of total investment costs, ore transport unit cost and net present value (NPV) of overall project for various depth. The results show that up to the depth of 700 m, the total investment cost and NPV favours the ramp access while unit ore transport cost make the shaft access preferable

An objective approach to the definition of some mining terms: Application to the Hasançelebi iron ore deposit

In the mining industry, definitions of terms such as geologic resource, geologic reserve, mineral resource, mineral, mineral reserve, ore, ore reserve, mineable reserve, and industrial minerals always have been debated, and have caused much confusion. The process of arriving at these definitions requires complicated exploration, calculation, and evaluation. Based on such work, the definitions about the mineral property will be distinctly different. The aims of this paper is to discuss and compare these definitions, and then contrast the differences among them in the example of the Hasançelebi iron are deposit, which is an important source of iron ore in Turkey. © 2004 International Association for Mathematical Geology.The authors thank the Turkish Iron and Steel Company for supplying data and special thank to ITU Development Foundation for their financial support

Weekly SO2 pollution map of Sivas city center by using geostatistical method [Sivas Kent merkezi haftalik SO2 kirlilik haritasinin çikarilmasinda jeoistatistiksel yöntemin kullanimi]

In this study, geostatistical method is used to generate SO2 map of Sivas city center for winter season, especially in evening hours when pollution is very intensive. For this purpose, SO2 values were taken at 14 points between December 4 and 18, 1994. By using these samples and applying geostatistics, SO2 values of 100 meters spaced 2046 points were calculated. These values were used to generate pollution maps. The effect of topography, meteorological factors and city plan on air pollution is investigated by evaluating these maps. It is seen that this type of studies constitute an important part for making decisions on pollution control, city expansion plans and selection of industrial areas. The result of this study showed that between mentioned date, SO2 concentration was above the air pollution control regulations which are 150 ?g/m3 for long-term and 400 ?g/m3 for short-term

Blasting practices in a quarry with karstic cavities

The blasting practices in a limestone quarry with karstic cavities have been presented. The existence of karstic cavities in the quarry has reduced blasting efficiency significantly. In order to improve blasting efficiency different blasting strategies (loading holes with ANFO in plastic bag, recording cavity location along the holes and charging the holes according to this information, and modifying blasting pattern according to karstic cavities) had been implemented and the results were evaluated on per ton cost basis. It was concluded that efficient blasting in such aquarries requires determining the size and shape of karstic cavities and based on this information, to modify the blast pattern and charge the holes. The suggested method is to record the cavity along the drill hole and to generate 3D model of cavities. By doing this, the production cost in the limestone quarry has decreased from 0.407 $/t to 0.354$/t