Asset Integrity Structural
Conveyor tunnels are critical infrastructure on mine sites and can deteriorate over a long service life, compromising their structural integrity. Three mine sites in Queensland’s Bowen Basin were all faced with tunnels nearing the end of their design lives. Manual measuring and data analysis had been carried out in the past but was slow and limited in resolution (and therefore in useful information). The sites engaged FIELD Engineers to carry out a laser survey-based alignment audit and analysis to improve speed and insight into the future management of these critical tunnel structures.
FIELD Engineers completed laser scans of the tunnels and then wrote customised code to complete an analysis that compared the precisely measured current shape to the original installed profile. The data could then be presented radially, longitudinally or laterally throughout the tunnel length, identifying problem spots, and providing feed-in data for assessing any structural actions required.
The scan-based data significantly improved tunnel status information and cut processing time compared to manual surveys, saving $20k to $60k per audit depending on the scale of the survey. FIELD Engineers’ considerable expertise in laser scanning minimised down time to complete measurements, and customised code was reused for subsequent tunnels, further reducing analysis time. This improvement in tunnel audits can be repeated, saves monitoring costs and allows for better decision making on extending the life of critical infrastructure.
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