An Assessment of Nominal and Actual Hourly Production of the Construction Equipment Based on Several Earth-Fill Dam Projects in Iran

Abstract

Optimum planning for heavy construction equipment is a vital task in succeeding the construction projects. In a construction plan one should significantly concentrate on the type, number and schedule of presence of the equipment at the project site. In this paper, we have studied the hourly production of a model of dozer, a wheel-type loader, a crawlertype loader, a grader, a crawler-type excavator, a sheepsfoot roller and a smooth wheel roller, at the site of several earthfill dams around Iran. Each model was individually considered and the site conditions were taken into account. The nominal hourly production of the equipment was derived according to the data obtained from Caterpillar, Komatsu, and Volvo manufacturers. The actual production was calculated according to the statistical data from various earth-fill dams in Iran. The derived results showed that the actual production of a sheepsfoot roller had the least difference with its nominal production; whilst the loader had the most difference in actual and nominal production (i.e. it had the lowest working efficiency).