Optimum haul road track selection on open pit coal mine by fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) implementation

Abstract

The optimal design of roads in mines is very crucial to the success of the mining operation. However, the transportation roads of mines are often inadequately designed and rarely properly maintained in order to save cost. In order to acquire the optimum track of road for the open pit coal mine, analysis of the topography factor, land usage, environment, and geology are needed on the basic engineering design phase. Considering the amount of overlapping and influencing criteria, the method of Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (Fuzzy AHP) is used. FAHP is the combination of AHP with the mathematical method of fuzzy. The difference between FAHP and AHP is the implementation of the level of importance in the paired comparison of the comparison matrices, which uses Triangular Fuzzy Numbers (TFN). Following the geometric planning of the open pit coal mine haul road, several track alternatives are considered. Fuzzy AHP was used to select the final alternative that should be implemented. The criteria for the fuzzy AHP operation were acquired through expert opinions. The resulting criteria and scores were processed, with the final result of a feasibility ranking of each track alternative. Fuzzy AHP were proven to be very effective to be used in determining the optimum haul road track alternative for an open pit coal mine.