Mining Goes Digital – Mueller et al. (Eds)
© 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-367-33604-2
481
An operational data based framework for longwall shearer
performance measurement
E. Yilmaz & M. Erkayaoglu
Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
ABSTRACT: Coal is an important part of the energy mix in today’s world. In most countries,
the deposits that can be economically extracted using surface mining techniques are becoming
scarcer, resulting in underground mining, especially longwall operations, providing a larger share
of total coal production. Optimisation of longwall operations should take equipment performance into consideration to understand the efficiency of the system and utilize it continuously
as part of decision-making. In this study, the effects of the operational factors on the shearer
performance in a longwall operation, and the total productive time of the shearer for a shift,
were investigated. Data were collected from a longwall operation on site as input to a simulation
model that allows the factors affecting the efficiency of the system to be investigated. The results
of this study defines a suggested framework for the collection, analysis, and interpretation of
longwall mining related operational data for the measurement of shearer performance.
1 INTRODUCTION
Coal is one of the most commonly utilized energy source for primary electricity generation in many countries. According to the research conducted by the World Energy Council
(2016), energy production from coal-based resources increased by 64% between 2000 and
2014. Today, approximately one-third of world electricity is provided by coal-based energy
production in the world, and coal is expected to maintain its importance in energy production in the next 30 years (World Energy Council 2016).
Coal can be extracted from the earth crust by applying underground mining methods
or surface mining methods. Surface mining methods are applied to deposits having shallow depths due to technical and economic reasons. As the shallow depth coal deposits are
extracted with the increase in energy demands of the humankind, underground mining activities have become more common for the extraction of coal deposits for the near future.
Production efficiency in mining activities was of secondary importance in production planning in the past since the companies were available to extract high-grade deposits. However, as
the amount of high-grade deposits decreased due to extraction, mining industry was directed
to lower grade deposits. Therefore, production efficiency become more critical for companies.
Mining engineers are challenged with different operational problems during production.
Some researchers approached these problems by applying mathematical techniques including
linear (Lamghari et al. 2015), nonlinear programming, genetic algorithm (Azimi & Osanloo
2011) and integer programming (Zhang & Xia 2015). However, as the mining problems are
mostly composed of stochastic processes, deterministic approach might not be applicable
to certain problems that involve uncertainties. On the other hand, discrete event simulation
(DES) technique can be successfully applied to systems having stochastic processes such mining activities, by utilizing data collected either manually or automatically.
Increase in the availability of computational power provides engineers the flexibility to
implement several simulation languages that have been developed to date. Currently, SIMAN
and GPSS/H are two of the most commonly used simulation languages in modelling of mining activities. These programming languages have been implemented into various software
© 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-367-33604-2
481
An operational data based framework for longwall shearer
performance measurement
E. Yilmaz & M. Erkayaoglu
Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
ABSTRACT: Coal is an important part of the energy mix in today’s world. In most countries,
the deposits that can be economically extracted using surface mining techniques are becoming
scarcer, resulting in underground mining, especially longwall operations, providing a larger share
of total coal production. Optimisation of longwall operations should take equipment performance into consideration to understand the efficiency of the system and utilize it continuously
as part of decision-making. In this study, the effects of the operational factors on the shearer
performance in a longwall operation, and the total productive time of the shearer for a shift,
were investigated. Data were collected from a longwall operation on site as input to a simulation
model that allows the factors affecting the efficiency of the system to be investigated. The results
of this study defines a suggested framework for the collection, analysis, and interpretation of
longwall mining related operational data for the measurement of shearer performance.
1 INTRODUCTION
Coal is one of the most commonly utilized energy source for primary electricity generation in many countries. According to the research conducted by the World Energy Council
(2016), energy production from coal-based resources increased by 64% between 2000 and
2014. Today, approximately one-third of world electricity is provided by coal-based energy
production in the world, and coal is expected to maintain its importance in energy production in the next 30 years (World Energy Council 2016).
Coal can be extracted from the earth crust by applying underground mining methods
or surface mining methods. Surface mining methods are applied to deposits having shallow depths due to technical and economic reasons. As the shallow depth coal deposits are
extracted with the increase in energy demands of the humankind, underground mining activities have become more common for the extraction of coal deposits for the near future.
Production efficiency in mining activities was of secondary importance in production planning in the past since the companies were available to extract high-grade deposits. However, as
the amount of high-grade deposits decreased due to extraction, mining industry was directed
to lower grade deposits. Therefore, production efficiency become more critical for companies.
Mining engineers are challenged with different operational problems during production.
Some researchers approached these problems by applying mathematical techniques including
linear (Lamghari et al. 2015), nonlinear programming, genetic algorithm (Azimi & Osanloo
2011) and integer programming (Zhang & Xia 2015). However, as the mining problems are
mostly composed of stochastic processes, deterministic approach might not be applicable
to certain problems that involve uncertainties. On the other hand, discrete event simulation
(DES) technique can be successfully applied to systems having stochastic processes such mining activities, by utilizing data collected either manually or automatically.
Increase in the availability of computational power provides engineers the flexibility to
implement several simulation languages that have been developed to date. Currently, SIMAN
and GPSS/H are two of the most commonly used simulation languages in modelling of mining activities. These programming languages have been implemented into various software