Competitive and sustainable surface mining operation requires production cost minimization and operating efficiency maximization. Material excavation and haulage cost constitutes about 60% of the total surface mining cost. Surface mining system efficiency is governed by many variables in random multivariate fields. The architectural design of a surface mining system is built on multi-layer structural components, including excavation and loading, haulage systems, dump sites, processing and maintenance subsystems. Special purpose simulation languages have been used to develop simulation software packages to simulate these system. Ther simulation packages are incapable for solving the essential problems of large-scale surface mining systems. These problems include interactive modification and visualization, CPU times and efficiency, software mainenance and long learning curves. Toward the solution of these problems, object oriented design (OOD) methodology is being used to simulate large-scale industrial systems. In this paper, the authors advance the use of interactive OOD methodology to design, model and simulate a complex surface mining system. The simulation model consists of a real-time dispatch system, multi-service loading and dumping systems, constrained haulage path system, continuous and hybrid operating systems, and material balance and flow models. An interactive interface with 3D visualization module allows analysts to interact, modify and visualize various segments of the OOD simulator to achieve targets and improve operating system efficiency.
- Interactive Visualization,
- Object Oriented Design,
- Surface Mining System,
- Virtual System Simulation
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/samuel-frimpong/10/