Integrated Monitoring and Energy Saving Solutions for Underground Mines

Belt conveyors are used to move coal material from the mining areas to different plant areas, and from one process to another. On one hand, the energy consumption of belt conveyors is a large percentage of the whole system, which can be significantly reduced. On the other hand, the safety issues and the reliability of the transport systems and relevant equipment become critical in modern mining industry.

Background

In underground mining industry, the monitoring and control of the coal transport system is difficult due to the harsh environment and the limitation of applicable technologies. Although the sub-systems of coal transport and individual equipment can be monitored, the reliability control of the overall system is hardly realized. Integrated monitoring and control are therefore desired to ensure the reliability and safety at a system level. Further, the integrated information and control philosophy can be utilized to determine the energy saving solutions for underground mining. These solutions may include the innovation of mining equipment, the optimization of logistic operation, the re-design of transport systems and the intelligent energy saving control.

Research goals

The goal of the project is to develop an integrated monitoring system, which can be applied to the safety and reliability control for underground mining. Meanwhile, the date and information acquired from the monitoring system will be use as the input of the control systems towards energy saving solutions. Concerning the scale and complexity of the whole establishment work of the corresponding mathematical models, four sub-modules can be distinguished which are more easy to be implemented. Further the integrated system combines the four sub-modules to achieve the goals of this research.

Research Content and Time Span

The research project analyses the effective strategies for safety and reliability control and energy savings for the belt conveyors applied in China underground mines. The parts of the research include the investigation of belt conveyors in China mines, the proposal of technologies and strategies and the consideration of process optimization.

Fund

Joint research project among three universities. Sponsored by China Provincial Funding.

Contact

The Netherlands

            dr. ir. Yusong Pang
            Delft University of Technology
            Section Transport Engineering and Logistics
            y.pang@tudelft.nl
            +31(0)15-2788685

China

            Prof. Gang Cheng
            China University of Mining and Technology
            School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering
            Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China
            chg@cumt.edu.cn
            +86(0)516-83591916

            Prof. Gaowei Yan
            Taiyuan University of Technology
            School of Information Technology and Engineering
            Taiyuan, Shanxi, China
            yangaowei@tyut.edu.cn
            +86(0)351-6014050