EVALUATING THE SAWABILITY OF ROCKS BY CHAIN-SAW MACHINES USING THE PROMETHEE TECHNIQUE

One of the most significant factors in the estimation of dimension stone quarry cost is the production rate of rock cutting machines. Evaluating the production rate of chain-saw machines is a very significant and practical issue. In this research, it has been attempted to evaluate and select the suitable working-face for a quarry by examining the maximum production rate in the Dehbid and Shayan marble quarries. For this purpose, fi eld studies were carried out which included measuring operational characteristics of the chain-saw cutting machine, the production rate and sampling for laboratory tests from seven active case studies. Subsequently, the physical and mechanical properties of rocks including: Uniaxial Compressive Strength (UCS), Brazilian Tensile Strength (BTS), Los Angeles abrasion, quartz content, water absorption percentage, porosity, Schmidt hardness and grain size for all sample measurements were studied after transferring the samples to a rock-mechanics laboratory. Finally, the sawability of the quarried working-faces was evaluated using the PROMETHEE multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model according to the physical and mechanical properties. The results of the study indicated that the number 1 and 5 working-faces from the Dehbid and Shayan quarries are the most suitable working-faces in terms of production rate with the maximum recorded production values (4.95 and 3.1 m2 /h), and with net fl ow rates (2.67 and -0.36) respectively.