Design optimization of electric mines

在过去的一百年里，柴油卡车一直主导着采矿业。这些柴油卡车排放危险的废气和大量的热量，这就需要使用巨大的通风基础设施来维护井下矿工的安全工作环境。锂离子电池技术的最新进展，包括降低成本和提高能量密度，使电池供电的电动矿用卡车成为柴油卡车的合理替代品。使用电动卡车的主要经济效益来自于减少通风需求，尽管还有其他好处，包括降低燃料成本、减少温室气体排放，以及改善工人的健康和安全。虽然使用电动矿用卡车取代柴油卡车的好处越来越为人所知，但如果从最初的设计概念考虑整个矿山作为一个系统，预计会产生更大的好处。如果一个新矿计划只用电动卡车运行，安装一个更小的通风系统，从而挖出更小的隧道，从而从矿井中清除更少的废物，可以获得更多的经济效益。问题是：如何才能为电动卡车的使用而优化设计矿井？拟议的项目将通过创建算法来回答这个问题，这些算法可以优化矿场的设计，以便与电动采矿卡车一起使用。这些算法将纳入经过验证的电动和柴油卡车模型，并将在空间和时间域进行优化：矿井的物理设计(隧道直径、通风系统、计划的电动卡车数量和大小)将与时间元素(装药计划、卡车速度)一起进行优化。由此产生的算法有可能显著改进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带来具体好处。

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.