Design optimization of electric mines

在过去的一百年里，柴油动力卡车一直主导着采矿业。这些柴油卡车排放出危险的排放物和大量的热量，这就需要使用巨大的通风基础设施来维持地下矿工的安全工作环境。锂离子电池技术的最新进展，包括成本的降低和能量密度的增加，已经使电池驱动的电动矿用卡车成为柴油动力卡车的合理替代品。使用电动卡车的主要经济效益来自减少通风需求，尽管还有其他好处，包括降低燃料成本，减少温室气体排放，改善工人的健康和安全。虽然使用电动采矿卡车取代柴油卡车的好处越来越广为人知，但如果从最初的设计概念出发，将整个矿山作为一个系统来考虑，预计会带来更大的好处。如果一个新矿计划只使用电动卡车，安装一个更小的通风系统，从而挖掘更小的隧道，从而从矿井中排出更少的废物，可以获得进一步的经济效益。问题是：如何优化矿井设计，使之适合电动卡车使用？拟议的项目将通过创建算法来回答这个问题，这些算法优化了电动采矿卡车的特定用途的矿山设计。该算法将结合经过验证的电动和柴油卡车模型，并将在空间和时间领域进行优化：矿山的物理设计（隧道直径、通风系统、电动卡车的计划数量和尺寸）将与时间因素（充电计划、卡车速度）一起进行优化。由此产生的算法有可能显著改善未来矿山的设计方式，在经济、健康和安全以及环境保护方面具有具体的好处。

For the last hundred years, diesel-powered trucks have dominated the mining industry. These diesel trucks emit dangerous emissions and high amounts of heat, which necessitate the use of immense ventilation infrastructure to maintain a safe work environment for underground miners. The recent advances in lithium-ion battery technology, including cost reduction and an increase in energy density, have made battery-powered electric mining trucks a plausible alternative to diesel-powered trucks. The main economic benefit of using electric trucks stems from the reduced ventilation needs, though there are additional benefits including reduced fuel costs, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and improved worker health and safety. Though the benefits of using an electric mining truck in place of a diesel truck are becoming more well-known, larger benefits are projected if the whole mine as a system is considered from the initial design concept. If a new mine is planned to operate with only electric trucks, further economic benefits can be obtained by installing a smaller ventilation system, and thus digging smaller tunnels, and thus removing less waste from the mine. The question is: how can a mine be optimally designed for use with electric trucks? The proposed project will answer this question by creating algorithms which optimize the design of a mine for specific use with electric mining trucks. The algorithms will incorporate validated models of electric and diesel trucks and will perform an optimization in both space and time domains: the physical design of the mine (diameter of tunnels, ventilation system, planned number and sizes of electric trucks) will be optimized in conjunction with the time element (charge scheduling, truck speeds). The resulting algorithms have the potential to significantly improve the way mines of the future are designed, with concrete benefits in terms of economics, health and safety, and environmental protection.