Material Transport System DesignFest Problem

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Clement Day
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1 Material Transport System DesignFest Problem Majid Nabavi, Shasha Wu, and Mohamed Fayad and {shwu, Material transport system introduces different methods for transporting solid and liquid materials. A solution to this problem should encounter a system that is using one or multiple methods for transporting materials to their destination. Materials Transport by Trucks The first method is transporting raw materials by trucks, specifically in a mining operation. In a mining open pit, mechanical shovels load materials from depots into dump trucks, and trucks transport material to destinations. They transport ore to mineral processing facility to be processed and prepared for the market, and transport waste rocks to waste dumps, to prepare the existing ore under them for extraction. This method requires a number of mechanical shovels, a fleet of trucks, and a scheduling system to dispatch trucks in an efficient way, minimizing their waiting times and making sure the system will achieve the transport goals within the designated time. Figure 1 illustrates a typical open pit with five active loading points and the routes N W1 W3 W P 1 Mineral Processing Facility P 2 Waste Dump Figure 1: Material transport in open pit mining

2 S Ore Waste Figure 2: A vertical profile of open pit and the ore body situation. Material Transport with Conveyor Belt An alternative method of transporting materials is using a conveyor belt system. The conveyor belt system is basically consisted of a reinforced, endless elastic belt with a constant width and thickness, moving over a series of rollers, and rollers are installed on chassis. Attributes of this system are length, width, speed and the engine power. These attributes along with the gravity and angle of repose of the bulk material determine the capacity of the system for transporting materials. The size of materials matters in this system, large size of rocks may damage the conveyor belt and fine sizes may be slipover, an optimum range is desirable. Angle of Repose Conveyor Belt Material Chassis Roller Figure 3: Cross section of a conveyor belt This method can be used in combination with trucks or as a substitute method. This method is applicable to mining and materials transport operations that handle a high volume of materials in a steady rate for a long time. In this method, loaders carry materials from the depot and dump it into feeders, in a short distance of the extraction site. Feeder feeds a crusher in a steady rate and crusher reduce the size of rocks to a proper size for transporting by conveyor belt. The whole system must be consistent in terms of capacity of materials flow. Loaders must carry the required volume of material in a time say, ton/hour, feeder must feed the crusher by the same rate and crusher must be able to deliver the same amount of material with the proper size to conveyor belt.

3 Conveyor belts in turn must have the proper width and speed to transport the material. If any of the elements of this system fails to keep up with the required rate of materials flow, there will be a material congestion at that point and the whole system will fail to achieve its goal of transporting the designed quota of material to the destination. Material depot Loader Feeder Conveyor belt Crusher Figure 4: Transport materials by conveyor belt Under this situation, the shovel-truck model can t satisfy the new requirements. We must modify the model. Transport solid materials through pipeline Transporting solid materials through a pipeline is the efficient and most economical method depending on the type and volume of materials, topography of the aria, and the distance. This method is used for relatively long distances, where huge quantities of material are transported during a long period of time. As you see in Figure 3, in this method material is loaded from depot of extracted materials into feeder by loaders. Feeder passes the material into crushers in a steady rate and materials go to ball mill after passing through the crusher. Ball mills reduce the size of materials to micron range and prepare them for transportation through pipelines. The milled materials are poured into mixers, where water is added to them, to make slime and then pump it to the pipeline. The pipeline then conducts the material to the destination. The process is showed as figure 3. Conveyor Feeder Pipeline Loder Crusher Ballmill Mixer Pump Figure 5: Transport materials through pipeline

4 Transport liquid materials We can consider the pipeline transport as a general method of transporting liquids like oil and water. These materials are also typically transported in a high rate, to a remote destination, for a long period of time. As we can see in figure 4, crude oil is extracted from the oil well, and depending on the nature of the oil reserve some pressure control process is necessary to get the flow under control and separate gas and volatile liquids from the oil. The pressure control and separating gas is a complicated operation, we consider it just as one of the components in our system. After controlling the extracted oil, it has to be transported to refineries or reserve tanks in ports, all considered as destinations. Pumping system pumps oil into the pipeline, depending in the pipeline length several pumping stations may work along a pipeline to keep the pressure high enough to run the flow with desired speed. Oil Well Tank Pressure Control Installations Pump Pipeline Figure.6- Oil transport system Use Cases: UC1.1. All dump trucks are going to start their work shift. They have to be assigned to different origins of loading to load ore or waste and transport them to destinations. Dump truck, Schedule, Shovel, Ore, Waste. Dump truck: Transports ore to mineral processing facility or waste rocks to the waste dump Schedule: Checks the status of shovels and Assigns dump trucks to the right shovel Ore: A pre determined amount of that is transported to mineral processing facility Waste: A pre determined amount of that is transported to the waste dump After arriving to the loading point, every truck spends one minute for maneuver and positioning before shovels start loading. The next truck(s) arriving to the same point will line up for loading that takes three minutes for each of them. Schedules have to send dump trucks in a way that the total time they spend in lines is minimized. UC1.2. A dump truck has arrived to the mineral processing facility and unloaded ore into the crusher of this site. This dump truck will be assigned to a shovel to load either

5 ore or waste. A similar use case would be for a truck that has arrived to the waste dump and is ready to start a new transport cycle. Dump truck, Schedule, Shovel, Ore, Waste. Dump truck: Transports ore to mineral processing facility or waste to waste dump Schedule: Assign DumpTrucks, checks the materials already transported to destinations plus the material that will be transported by dump trucks in the way and if the volume is enough, stop transport operation. Ore: A pre determined amount of that is transported to mineral processing facility Waste: A pre determined amount of that is transported to waste dump The next loading point of this dump truck will be one of the shovels that has finished loading either ore or waste into the previous dump truck by the time this one arrives. In other words, there is no waiting time for loading. If all shovels will be busy loading trucks by the time this one arrives, then the dump truck will go to the shovel with minimum waiting time. UC1.3. All the materials transport goals for the shift is fulfilled and the operation have to stop. Dump truck, Schedule, Shovel, Ore, Waste. Dump truck: Transports ore to mineral processing facility or waste to the waste dump Schedule: Assign dump trucks, checks the materials already transported to destinations plus the material that will be transported by dump trucks in the way and if the volume is enough, stop transport operation. Ore: A pre determined amount of that is transported to mineral processing facility Waste: A pre determined amount of that is transported to waste dump The next loading point of this dump truck will be one of the shovels that have finished loading either ore or waste into the previous dump truck by the time this one a/rives. In other words, there is no waiting time for loading. If all shovels will be busy loading trucks by the time this one arrives, then the dump truck will go to the shovel with minimum waiting time.

6 getstatus CalculateDistance Dump-Truck (from Logical View) Shovel AllocateTime (from Logical View) AssignTask VerifyAvailability Figure 7: Use Case View UC1.4. A specific quota of ore should be transported to the mineral processing facility from a depot of extracted materials. Materials size should be in a proper range for conveyor belt. Ore, Loader, Feeder, Crusher, and Conveyor Ore: a specific quota of that should be transported to the mineral processing facility Loader: should transport the specific quota of materials to the feeder Feeder: feed the crusher in a steady rate equal to the quota, so that there is no congestion of materials in the crusher jaw Crusher: crushes rocks and reduces the size of them to a proper range for transporting by conveyor belt Conveyor belt: transport materials to the mineral processing facility at a steady rate UC 1.5. Materials are transported through a pipeline. The distance of transport is relatively long and the transport system will be used for a long time. Ore, Loader, Feeder, Crusher, Conveyor belt, Ball mill, Mixer, Pump, Pipeline Ore: a specific quota of that should be transported to the mineral processing facility Loader: should transport the specific quota of materials to the feeder

7 Feeder: feed the crusher in a steady rate equal to the quota, so that there is no congestion of materials in the crusher jaw Crusher: crushes rocks and reduces the size of them to a proper range for transporting by conveyor belt Conveyor belt: transport materials to a ball mill Ball mill: Reduces the size of materials to a micron range, proper for plunging into a fluid mix, and don t settle down in the pipeline. Mixer: takes the material from the ball mill. Mix them with specific volume of water in turbulence to make slime, and feed pumps. Pump: take the slime from mixer and provide enough pressure to move it through pipeline to the destination or the next pumping station. Pipeline: conducts the slime to the destination, providing the minimal friction and required strength against pressure and corrosion U.C.1.6. Oil is extracted from the reserve through the oil well, its pressure should be controlled and part of the gas and volatile ingredients should be separated for injecting into the oil reserve. Oil is then pumped into the pipeline to its destination. Oil: is extracted from the reserve in a specific rate Gas: is naturally diluted with the oil. The gas content of every oil reserve reduces during the time Pressure Control Installations: This system controls the pressure of extracted oil and gas and separates them to prepare the oil for transportation Pump: takes the oil and pumps it into the pipeline with a proper volume and speed, to the destination or next pumping station Pipeline: conducts the oil to the destination, providing the required strength against pressure and corrosion Tank: Receives and holds specific volume of oil safely U.C.1.7. A mining operation uses shovels and dump trucks for transporting materials to a site for preparing them to transport through a pipeline. This use case is for combining two methods of transport for ore. Dump truck, Schedule, Shovel, Ore, Waste, loader, feeder, crusher, conveyor, ball mill, mixer, pump, pipeline Dump truck: Transports ore to mineral processing facility or waste to the waste dump Schedule: Assign dump trucks, checks the materials already transported to destinations plus the material that will be transported by dump trucks in the way and if the volume is enough, stop transport operation. Ore: A pre determined amount of that is transported to mineral processing facility Waste: A pre determined amount of that is transported to waste dump The next loading point of this dump truck will be one of the shovels that have finished loading either ore or waste into the previous dump truck by the time this one arrives. In other words, there is no waiting time for loading. If all shovels will be busy loading trucks by the time this one arrives, then the dump truck will go to the shovel with minimum waiting time.

8 Loader: should transport the specific quota of materials to the feeder Feeder: feed the crusher in a steady rate equal to the quota, so that there is no congestion of materials in the crusher jaw Crusher: crushes rocks and reduces the size of them to a proper range for transporting by conveyor belt Conveyor belt: transport materials to a ball mill Ball mill: Reduces the size of materials to a micron range, proper for plunging into a fluid mix, and don t settle down in the pipeline. Mixer: takes the material from the ball mill. Mix them with specific volume of water in turbulence to make slime, and feed pumps. Pump: take the slime from mixer and provide enough pressure to move it through pipeline to the destination or the next pumping station. Pipeline: conducts the slime to the destination, providing the minimal friction and required strength against pressure and corrosion

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