A novel index for shearer system resilience in underground coal mines based on the operational environment

Abstract

The use of resilience during the mining period by guaranteeing the safety and performance of the systems greatly helps the managers and engineers with their decision-making and designing different systems. During the last two decades, various studies have been conducted in this regard. However, the analysis of underground coal mining systems’ resilience has been rarely addressed by these studies. The present study aims to provide a quantitative index for resilience in the environment of underground coal mining operations based on the risk factors. To do so, in a case study of Tabas Mechanized Coal Mine, the Failure of shearer data and the stoppages caused by it (for 2 years and a half, from March 2017 to June 2019) were studied to analyze the system’s resilience. Then, the experts were surveyed. After collecting and categorizing the data, the data analysis calculations were done for indicators of reliability, maintainability, supportability, organizational resilience, PHM system efficiency, and economic resilience. Finally, a new quantitative index named the “Shearer System Resilience Index” was introduced. The results indicated that resilience is reduced over time. They also shows that in order to improve resilience, project managers should pay more attention to these indicators, especially the indicators of maintainability, and organizational resilience. Therefore, regarding the scope of the data investigated in the current study, the use of Failure of Shearer data-based risk factors and experts’ opinions for the analysis of resilience in the case study is strongly recommended.