PLANNING BELT CONVEYOR NETWORKS USING COMPUTER SIMULATION

Special Research Report SR-63 This report presents the results of the application of SR-47, "A Simulation Model on the Optimal Design of Belt Conveyor Systems," to an operating mine in central Pennsylvania. This mine is presently considering ambitious expansion plans with the addition of several continuous -miner sections. A reasonable solution to the problem of primary belt overloading, rather than purchasing larger belts, was to place a surge bin at one or two places in the system to help smooth peak loading. The questions remainir~g were: 1. Are both bins needed? 2. What should be their capacity? 3. What should be their dis charge rate? The only absolutely certain way management could answer these would be to install and operate the system. Although some assign- ment problems with existing equipment might be solved in this manner, system changes involving large capital expenditures can seldom be evaluated economically by such experimentation. Indeed, the probabilistic nature of mine production observed here would necessitate a lengthy experiment for each alternative to locate the optimum system. As a result, management decided to utilize the simulation model to establish guidelines and to help answer the questions posed above. ~: .. This report is part of the service phase of the program of research~ Optimization of Mine Production Systems for Low-Cost Mining. A portion of a letter of evaluation from operating manage- ment regarding the results and quality of work derived from this program is reproduced below.