Planning of earthwork processes using discrete event simulation

The planning of earthworks represents a complex task. The use of different machine configurations as well as alternative scenarios in the site layout (e.g. transport routes and temporal storage areas) must be evaluated and dimensioned consistently. Wrong decisions can lead to delays or an uneconomic solution and hence increase the costs and project duration. In practice, this planning process is based on the experience and knowledge of the persons in charge; however, decision support tools are not used in the planning of excavation and transportation equipment despite their central importance. Therefore an approach has been developed to support the planning of construction processes in earthworks by applying discrete event simulation. For this purpose, methods for calculating the performance of earthmoving equipment were extended based on statistical components, adapted for simulation, and implemented in a module library. Furthermore, the simulation tool has been coupled with a mathematical optimization procedure to reduce the cost of transport in earthworks by minimizing haul times.