IM 2016 June 2016 | Page 53

HAUL ROADS_proof 25/05/2016 10:36 Page 4

HAUL ROADS

Improving mine haul road roughness

One vehicle operation on a
mine site road using
roughness data from Delta-V
Experts system.  Initially the
vehicle is moving from a truck
park, then shifting material
and then returning to the truck
park

Dr Shane Richardson and associates at Delta-V
Experts, a leading accident investigation, forensic
engineering and workplace safety solutions
consultancy based in Moonee Ponds, Victoria, in
Australia, were requested to develop a system to
measure road roughness which provided daily
pictorial reports to a mine site. The purpose of
the daily pictorial reports was to quantify the
roughness of the roads and to identify areas
requiring maintenance.
The current ultra-class haul trucks can have a
gross mass from 450 t to 590 t with 60 to 90 litre
engines developing 1,830 kW to 2,800 kW. By
managing the roughness of the mining road
network the rolling resistance of the haul trucks
can be controlled/managed within a defined
band and hence the mine can control part of the
haul truck fuel consumption. Conversely,
constantly maintaining mine roads affects the
productivity of the mine. Typically the decision to
conduct maintenance work on a Haul Road is
made subjectively, based on the feel of how
rough the roads are getting. A system was
needed to objectively collect data from vehicles
operating on the mine, and process and display

data on road roughness to mine
staff.
The system that has been
developed utilises an Android
smart telephone; internet
connection; input/output data
board (six analogue and six digital
channels); a cable mounted triaxial accelerometer; and analysis
software. It was installed on haul
trucks, water carts and light
vehicles and then calibrated for
the vehicles.
Tri-axial acceleration data is
recorded at 100 Hz and GPS data
is recorded at 1 Hz. Approximately
every five minutes the recorded
data is transmitted using an
internet connection to a server.
The collected data for a day of
operations is then processed, and
each GPS position a colour coded road
roughness value is assigned. Based on the GPS
data the processed road roughness data can then

haulage roads, and the Cat MineStar System can
collect data and help identify problems with
haulage roads and other components of the
haulage system.

be overlaid on an image of the terrain. The
processed data enables the mine site to
implement daily maintenance strategies to

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ISHIGAKI Oceania Pty. Ltd. • Australia • www.ishigaki.com.au • Tel. [phone]

JUNE 2016 | International Mining 51