Simulator for bucket wheel excavators in RWE Power AG's lignite opencast mines

摘要

In the Rhenish mining area, i.e. in the triangle formed by the cities of Cologne, Aachen, and Monchengladbach, RWE Power AG operates the Hambach, Garzweiler, and Inden large-scale opencast mines in which approx. 100 mill, t of lignite are produced and some 500 mill, m~3 of overburden moved each year [1 ]. This output can only be achieved with transport chains of bucket-wheel excavators, belt conveyors and spreaders that supply a continuous mass flow from the extraction to the dumping side of the opencast mine or to the coal bunker. In order to be able to withstand the increasing competitive pressure from other energy sources in the future as well, RWE Power is pursuing the strategy of continuing to optimize the associated mining processes. This objective is to be attained on the one hand by improving the support of operations management by innovative operations management systems [2] and on the other - where this is economically sensible and technically feasible - by automating processes [3]. Virtual models of the real processes are increasingly used to this end. The quick and safe introduction of these systems and the training of main mine equipment operators (MMEO) for optimal operation are to be ensured with the aid of a main mine equipment simulator for bucket-wheel excavators (BWE).