Rapid determination of fuzzy number in FAHP and assessment risk in coal mine roof fall

Abstract

This study proposed a rapid approach to determine the fuzzy number to evaluate roof fall risk in the coal mine. In risk assessments by fuzzy theory, the determination of fuzzy numbers using triangular fuzzy numbers (TFN) incorporated into the analytic hierarchy process is a difficult and time-consuming task. A novel approach to determine fuzzy number in TFN was proposed. To reduce occurrence of roof fall accidents, it is necessary to identify the main risk factors in roof fall risk assessments. A nine-score table-type questionnaire was adopted to collected expert judgement, based on which language scales were determined, ranging from 0.1 to 0.9, with increments of 0.1. Each language scale corresponded to the selected value of the experts. Subsequently, a triangular fuzzy complementary judgement matrix and a consistent possibility judgement matrix were constructed. The effectiveness of this proposed method was verified via analysing a case of roof collapse at Chaidar coal mine, Qinghai Province, China. The final ranking results of the risk factors were consistent with those observed in the field.

Keywords:

• Coal mine roof fall
• analytic hierarchy process
• risk assessment
• triangular fuzzy numbers

Data availability statement

Supplementary material associated with this article can be found which the online link of the questionnaire is shown below: https://www.wjx.cn/vm/rvVbjpf.aspx.

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The research work was funded by ‘The Pearl River Talent Recruitment Program’ in 2019 (Grant No. 2019CX01G338), Guangdong Province and the Scientific Research Initiation Grant of Shantou University for New Faculty Member (Grant No. NTF19024-2019).