Planificación de construcciones subterráneas con métodos estocásticos

Résumé

Abstract Every year approximately 70,000 meters of tunnels with different sections are excavated in Chile for underground mining and civil works. The investments involve approximately 70 million dollars per year. In the mining industry this kind of infrastructure is very important as they serve to access the ore zones and prepare the ore excavation. This work proposes a simulation algorithm based on Monte Carlo method that can provides the best estimation of the opening excavation times considering the classic method of drilling and blasting. To use the Monte Carlo method, the unit operations involved in the underground excavation cycle is identified and is assigned to them probability distributions which, by means of the generation of random numbers, make it possible to simulate the total excavation time. The results obtained by this method are compared with a real case where it can be seen that the times obtained by the simulation fit better the real tunnel construction times than those planned by means of conventional methods, and they also allow getting scenarios that can be important decision parameters at the time of planning a project of this kind. Further used this methodology to obtain the best configuration of operational work shifts, as allowed by Chilean law, in order to minimize the time of tunnel excavation. Finally, the excavations of the tunnels 11 and 12 of the Chuquicamata underground mine was simulated, showing evident the benefit of the method to obtain a estimation the ending of tunnel construction.