Análise da produtividade do trator de esteira D11 em função do ângulo de corte com software DOZSIM durante o decapeamento da camada de estéril da mina de bauxita da Mineração Paragominas S. A.

Abstract

Bauxite is the ore in study. This is the main ore used for the aluminum production. Its mining is performed open pit, by the strip mining method, which is mostly applied to the mining of the shallow and sub horizontal layers with large extent and volume. In the Mineração Paragominas S.A. (MPSA), of Norsk Hydro Company, where this study has been developed, this method is utilized. To this mining company, the use of on tire or track equipments, such as tractors, excavators, trucks, motor graders, shovels, surface miners, etc. are of the utmost importance for the project success. Among them, high importance is given to the bulldozers CAT D11, since they are a basic tractor unit on the earthworks, being also responsible for about 67% of all movements of waste in MPSA. For these equipments, performance indices, such as productivity and physical use, are tools that allow a better management of the fleets and the achievement of increasingly optimized yield curves. Among these indices, we can contrast for an productivity analysis (ratio between volume of material moved and the spent operating hours). In this sense, it was performed a study related to the bulldozers productivity in the Paragominas bauxite mine (PA) during the overburden removal, analyzing the variables involved in the process and determining, more specifically the increase of the geometrical variable of cutting angle from 14°, 15° and 16° to 17°, 18° and 19°. The results were obtained via simulations in specific softwares and practical tests, which pointed the better operational methodologies. Thus, the results showed the productivity gain of 6,71% with the increase of the cutting angle.