APPLICATION OF FAHP IN OPTIMIZATION OF MINE VENTILATION NETWORKS DEAL WITH FAN SELECTION

摘要

Fans in ventilation networks play an important role in mining operations because, lack of fresh air in faces causes lots of problems. Moreover, most of the ventilation systems provide air flow more than requirement of a mine. Thus, this action causes lots of problems in different aspects, such as: finance and safety. However, fan selection for a mine is critical issue in providing fresh air to faces. Moreover, making decisions about this subject is a complex task. However, essential analysis is mapping qualitative variables of fans, which have great influence on performance of a ventilation network. Decision making about fans are based on two parameters: i) technical parameters and ii) financial parameters. Application of classical Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), as a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM), is so popular. On the other hand, AHP is not appropriate for vague and qualitative variables. Hence, combination of fuzzy logic (FL) and classical AHP overcome limitations of classical AHP. Decision maker (DM) can apply triangle fuzzy number (TFN) for making fuzzy weights. Indeed, AHP is based on pairwise comparison of parameters. Hence, utility of FL in making ranks for AHP is useful. This paper presents a FAHP methodology for main fan selection. The results of this study revealed that FAHP can effectively be utilized in fan selection as a decision support tool.