Date of Publication :8th October 2024

Abstract: One of the main activities in the construction industry is earthwork operation, which involves excavation, transportation, and disposal of materials. Fleets of trucks, excavators and loading equipment are used to handle and move large volumes of ma terial in usually uncertain environments with unpredictable times. Repetitive uncertain tasks need to be analyzed carefully to estimate the required amount of equipment, such as excavators, loaders, and trucks. Moving the earth, loading and routing the trucks and returning them back for reloading operations involve task times, which are usually random and probabilistic in nature. Determination of the optimum truck fleet to be assigned to excavators and loading equipment may be complicated. Past analysis indicates that the planning of these activities can be significantly improved by using discrete-event simulation instead of traditional tools. This paper investigates the optimization of earthwork operations using ARENA simulation tool due to its flexibility and ease in analyzing various construction activities. The study considers a specific case study in Neom City, the line spine project in Saudi Arabia. A simulation model is built and developed that mimics real-world earthwork operations. By simulating different operation scenarios, the model results are used to determine the optimum capacity and assignment of truck fleet to hauling equipment with respect to minimum task times and cost values.

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