Impact Evaluation of Excavator Positioning on Open Pit Slope Stability

Several studies have been reported about the importance of excavator positioning on open pit. It is essential to study and evaluate the slope stability of non-metallic deposits to understand how various factors affect it. In this work, the relationship between slope stability and the positioning of excavators in non-metallic deposits (as sand and peat) was investigated in order to increase the safety and efficiency of excavators during excavation processes. A two-stage method is proposed. A model of excavator on the pit slope was designed and imported to ''Rocscience Slide 2D" software with taking all slope parameters constant, except for the slope angle, excavator positioning on the slope and pressure of excavator on slope (NGP). After that the factor of safety value was collected using the Spencer Method. Moving forward with the Two-Level, Three-Factor Full Factorial Design at the Design Expert software to study the effect of each factor on the response variable (FoS), as well as the effects of interactions between factors. The control of NGP value can reduce slope stability in average of 5 to 30% and slope angle can increase FoS by up to 5 to 15%. The study found that rational excavator positioning can significantly reduce the risk of slope failure and improve the overall productivity of the excavation process in non-metallic material deposits. Furthermore, the information obtained could be useful for the development of excavator artificial intelligence systems to control the excavator positioning on open-pit slope and minimize the effect of factor different factor on slope stability.