TRAM: A Graphical User Interface for Risk Analysis in the Underground Coal Mines

Abstract

Over the last few decades, the Australian, New Zealand, Canada, UK, USA and South African mining industries have applied risk management techniques to regulate the hazards in mines. In the Indian mining industry, it was mandated only after the revision of the Coal Mines Regulations in 2017. An effective risk assessment is required to develop a practical risk management plan. TRAM (Tool for Risk Assessment in Mines) is a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that acts as a risk analysis and ranking tool for underground coal mines. This study aims to describe the structure and application of TRAM developed. TRAM is based on the proposed methodology which incorporates Fuzzy logic, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and VIKOR, which stands for Multi-Criteria Optimization and Compromise Solution. In the proposed methodology, three risk parameters, consequence (C), exposure (E) and probability (P) were used to assess the risk of identified hazards, hazard groups and overall mine. A case study of risk analysis of an underground coal mine is used to illustrate the application of the TRAM. The developed TRAM has a user-friendly interface, allowing even inexperienced experts to perform effective risk analysis for mines in a short period of time.