Modeling two-way traffic flow in an underground one-way decline LR.Sturgul University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA W.L.Jacobsen Kennecott Corporation, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA T.L-Tecsa University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho USA & University of Petrogani, Romania ABSTRACT: Two way traffic in a one-way underground decline limits the productivity and number of haulage trucks and support vehicles. This situation exists when only one truck cam physically fit in a decline as is the case with some older or expanding mines. Passing bays are generally established at specified intervals along the decline to allow trucks to pass. The modeling logic to simulate traffic patterns in a one-way underground mine decline is described herein. Since loaded trucks coming up a decline have priority, it is important that empty trucks coming down the incline have the ability to “look ahead" and give preference to the loaded trucks. The segments between passing bays can be scanned to-see if a loaded truck is on them, Twa cases are considered here, The first has to do with all the trucks (loaded and unloaded) checking the segment in front of them to see if itis clear (or if a truck is waiting in a passing bay). This technique allows only one truck at a time to be on a segment. The second case is more important since it allows all loaded trucks to clear segment while an unloaded track must wait until the last loaded truck clears the segment. INTRODUCTION Some underground mine simulations were done making certain simplifications to allow the models Simulation of underground mining operations has to be constructed. No such simplifications were not involved complex interaction between made in the models to be discussed here. ‘equipment because of the constraints imposed by the travel restrictions. Rist (1961) was able to This general problem arose while constructing a model an underground train haulage system where simulation model for an underground mine that only one train could be on the haulage track at a was constructing a large (3000 m) incline. There time. However, this involved only one travel were numerous passing bays to be constructed, In restriction. In the general case of multiple trucks addition, older workings could be used as well as. traveling on a single path, this becomes quite current production bays. There were 4 types of complex. Sturgul et. al. (1991) modeled trucks vehicles that were to be in the incline. These were: traveling oa an incline for an underground mine in Northern Queensland but this, too, was simplified L, Trucks hauling ore to the surface. by the fact that there were many passing bays and only one truck at-a time could be traveling in any 2, Trucks hauling waste to the surface or to- direction. No preference was given to trucks that — other mined out areas. were loaded. In the review of papers on mine simulation using computer techniques, Sturgul 3. Trucks hauling backfill from the surface. (1995 and 1996) found that nearly all examples of mine system simulation involved surface mining 4. Normal traffic such as pick-up trucks operations. Several models of underground mines hauling miners and materials. that were simulated involved systems where a single front end loader removed ore from the face and No distinction was made for vehicles that were transported it fo crusher or hopper. Thus, there going down the incline (they were all considered as was no interference. abeing “unloaded") and those coming up (they were all considered as being "loaded" no matter if they were hauling ore or waste). PROBLEM STATEMENT Consider a single deciine where only one way traffic is allowed. Trucks enter at the portal and travel to one of many working areas or, in the case of tracks hauling backfill, to a mined out area, Trucks are loaded at the working area and return to the portal. They then travel to one of several areas such as the mill or waste area and then return to the portal. There are a number of passing bays. However, care must be iaken to avoid a situation where a truck is “trapped” in a passing bay. This can happen when a truck is in a passing bay and another truck is coming down on the previous i and one is coming up in the next segment. Should this be the ease in a real life situation, the truck advancing dowa would have to back up and this is not permitted. To study this problem several simulation models were constructed for a variety of situations, The language used in the simulation study was GPSS/H. ‘This is an extremely versatile simulation language that allows the programmer a great deal of flexibility. Unlike some other simulation languages, GPSS/Hl is a low level language which means that it be used to model extremely complex situations by having the capability of having the necessary programming “blocks” to allow the writing of the relevant code. Other simulation languages are also capable of modeling complex mining situations but GPSS/H is known to have the ability to handle complex situations such as in the models studied here. The actual decline was to have numerous passing bays but, for the sake of this exercise, short declines were considered as having only 6 passing bays since the same logic would be applied to the actual case. In fact, the logic used in the programs that were constructed for this exercise can easily be extended to any number of passing bays. To understand the complexity of this problem, consider a simple case of a decline, or in this case 2 tunnel, with only 2 passing bays. This is shown in Figure 1. entrance “*LSJe Lye bey bay? Figure 1. 2 Bays arrangement the trucks travel at approximately the same speeds, The trucks enter the tunnel, travel to the end, turn around and return to the entrance where they again enter the tunnel, Suppose there are 4 trucks in the system. The first truck enters the system and proceeds directly to the bottom since there are no other trucks in the system. The second truck enters the system by the time the first has arrived at the first passing bay. This second truck will be at the second bay when the first truck is at the end. Now, it must enter the second bay until the first truck has passed it on its way back to the entrance. Similarly, the third truck will have to wait in the first passing bay while the first truck passes it. The 4th truck will not be able to enter the system at all until the first has arrived at the entrance, In fact, it can be seen that only three trucks are needed for this system. FIRST MODEL ‘The first model had a series of 6 passing bays spaced at uneven intervals. The trucks moved at the same speed, although this was not mecessary. The following concepts inherent in the GPSS/H. language were used in developing the computer code: ‘Transactions or units that flow through the ‘system, In this case the transactions are the trucks, Gates barriers that halt the flow of ‘transactions, much like a real gate. These gates may halt 2 transaction until it becomes open or ‘route it to another location. The “routing” would ‘correspond toa truck entering a passing bay. Logic Switches A switch that tells a Gate to be open or shut, The trucks will be setting or resetting these switches as they travel along the decline,Eacilitieg Entities that can be owned by only one transaction at a time. When a truck is in a passing bay, it "owns" the bay and no other truck enters it. Although the above may not be familiar to the person who hhas not been exposed to the GPSS/H language, they are quite analogous to real life concepts as the trucks move along the decline, In this first madel, it was assumed that only one truck can be on a segment either moving down or up. Thus, if'a truck was coming up on say segment D, 1a truck going down would have to wait in.a passing bay until the truck passed, Also, another truck coming down would have to wait in the previous bay. A second truck coming up would also have to wait because of the restriction of only one truck on ‘a segment at atime. ‘The program consisted of a series of Gates on either side of each passing bay. When a truck going down the incline approached a passing bay, it checked with two Gates to see if they were open" or "closed". One of these Gates was at the passing bay and the other at the next passing bay. If the ‘Gate was open, this meant that there was no traffic ‘omithe segment in front of it. It also checked to see that there was no truck in the passing bay waiting to come up the decline. If all the conditions were true, then the truck proceeded onto the next segment. Upon doing this, the truck set a Logic Switch which closed a Gate to tell other trucks that they could not be on the segment until the first truck had left it (Recall that only one truck could beon a segment at a time). By setting a switch, the Gate was then closed. ‘The same conditions applied for trucks coming up the ine. RESULTS The program was run for a series of trucks to illustrate how the production, in this case, the number of trucks to enter the mine, increased until saturation was reached. However, to check on the logic of the system, animation was added. This gave a visual representation of the system and showed that the trucks were indeed flowing correctly, Figure 2, illustrates this, 89 Figure 2. Example of trucks moving one per segment, Figure 3. shows an example where trucks are ina loading area. Figure 3. Example of truck being loaded. SECOND MODEL In the actual mine to be modeled, the segments were quite long. Thus, it was not practical for the restriction that only one truck could be on a Segment at a time, Also, preference was to be given to trucks coming up the incline. ‘Thus, it was necessary to allow more than one truck to be on segment coming up. As for trucks going down, the same logic as before applied, i, ¢. omly one truck could be on a segment at one time. This was to ‘ensure that loaded trucks would have a priority in returning to the surface. The necessary changes to the program were made by keeping the same logic for the trucks going down into the mine, However, the logic for trucks coming up had to-change. The first truck entering a segment sets only one Gate so that trucks coming down will know and not be able to proceed, The number of trucks coming back up is kept track of for each of the segments. Thus, it is known if more than one truck will be on a segment coming up. As a result of these changes, only trucks coming down will use the passing bays. RESULTS The program for this new model gave correct results. Once ‘animation was.added to show that the trucks were indeed moving as expected. Figure 4 shows one possible situation. The passing bays are shown exaggerated for illustraton purposes.Figure 4. Example of multiple trucks on segment returning. ‘CONCLUSION It is possible to model complex motion in an underground mine making use of the programming power of a special simulation language. In this ‘ease, the animation was extremely valuable as it showed exactly what was happening for each model. REFERENCES. Rist, K., 1961 (original paper), "Solution of 2 ‘Transportation Problem by use of a Monte Carlo Technique," 2nd APCOM, Tucson, Ariz., March 1962, pub. by univ. of Arizona. This was a reprint of an article originally published in Mining World, 1961 Sturgul, J. R., Stephenson, W., ‘Carey, ., “How a Simulation Model can Assist an ‘Underground Mine: A Case History of the Selwyn ‘Mine, Queensland", Comp, Application in the ‘Mining Industry, 2nd Aust. Conf, ed. E. Baafi, ‘Wollongong, NSW, July 1991 mote: GPSS/H and PROOF Professional are registered trademarks of Wolverine Software, Annandale, VA.