A Discrete Event Simulation Approach to Haul Truck Maintenance in Coal Mining Operations
2026 SME Annual Conference and Expo, MINEXHANGE 2026, Utah, United States Of America, 22 - 25 February 2026, (Full Text)
- Publication Type: Conference Paper / Full Text
- City: Utah
- Country: United States Of America
- Open Archive Collection: AVESIS Open Access Collection
- Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes
Abstract
Effective maintenance planning is vital for coal mining operations, where haul truck fleets directly determine production continuity. This study presents a discrete event simulation (DES) model for evaluating maintenance strategies under multiple failure modes and their interdependencies. The model integrates corrective, periodic preventive, and opportunistic maintenance, dynamically updating equipment lifetimes through probabilistic time-betweenfailure and time-to-repair distributions. Applied to a fivetruck coal haulage fleet over a one-year horizon, results show that periodic preventive maintenance delivers the highest availability (76%) under unconstrained conditions, slightly outperforming corrective-only maintenance (75%). Opportunistic and integrated approaches performed worse (68% and 69%), reflecting redundancy from overlapping interventions. These findings suggest that structured preventive programs provide the most reliable outcomes when costs and resources are not limiting. The DES framework serves as a baseline for future models incorporating cost, spare parts logistics, and workforce availability, supporting robust maintenance planning in coal mining operations.