Abstract
The plough discharger is the key device of the belt conveyor, which targets the wear problem of the baffle. In this paper, the coal particle model is established by EDEM, the normal ...cumulative contact energy and tangential cumulative contact energy of discharge baffles with radius of 1.6m, 2.5m, 4.5m and 8m are obtained, as well as the average velocity of coal particles contacting discharge baffles with different curvature radii, and the wear of the baffle with different curvature under the same working conditions are studied. The optimal radius of curvature was selected through analysis. It provides a basis for the future design of the discharger baffle.
Abstract
In view of the structural defects of the current belt conveyor roller frame, such as heavy weight and high labor intensity of disassembly and assembly, a new lattice roller frame was ...designed by changing the structure and profile. On the premise of meeting the work conditions, the weight of the roller frame was reduced by more than 45%, which not only reduced the labor intensity of disassembly and assembly, but also reduced the tonnage and cost of consumables of the belt conveyor, and it has a broad market prospect.
This study developed dried shiitake mushrooms through belt-conveyor combined microwave-hot air (MWHAB) drying, comparing it with hot air (HA) drying. MWHAB drying, with microwave powers ranging from ...300 W to 600 W at 65 °C, was contrasted with HA drying at the same temperature. Both blanched and unblanched samples were dried to a final moisture content of 11.1% (d.b.). The research evaluated drying kinetics, specific energy consumption (SEC), and various quality aspects, including color, shrinkage, rehydration, texture, and microstructure. Results showed that blanched samples dried with MWHAB at 600 W significantly reduced drying times and SEC by 76.9% and 77.3%, respectively, compared to HA drying. Dried MWHAB products exhibited lower shrinkage and hardness but higher rehydration, larger pore sizes, and void area fraction than HA. Although no significant color differences were observed, MWHAB drying at 600 W yielded lower values for shrinkage and hardness, and higher values for rehydration, void area fraction, and larger pore sizes than other cases. Additionally, unblanched dried samples displayed reduced shrinkage and hardness but increased color values, rehydration, larger pore sizes, and void area fraction compared to blanched samples. Optimal shiitake mushroom production is recommended using unblanched samples dried with MWHAB at 600 W microwave power.
•Transport of bulk materials at angles of inclination, which considerably exceed the permissible angle of inclination of the transport of belt conveyors of a classic design.•Belt conveyor of a ...special design, the methodology of the laboratory measurement.•Measured horizontal compressive forces of bulk material acting on conveyor rollers.•The structural design of the pressing mechanism of the covering.•Measurement proposal, ultrasonic sensor S18UIA, force sensor U9C, strain gauge apparatus DS NET, DEWESoft X2 SP5 software.
Using certain belt conveyors of a special design, it is possible to transport bulk material at angles of transport inclination significantly exceeding the permissible angle of inclination for traditional design. A special design of such a belt conveyor, described in this paper, uses the so-called cover belt to transport bulk materials at inclination angles from 20 to 90 degrees. By applying its weight or employing pressure, it exerts pressure on the surface of the layer of the transported material that is spread on the surface of the carrying belt. This paper aims to describe the laboratory measurement methodology and to detect the magnitude of the horizontal compressive forces of the transported bulk material acting on conveyor rollers (idlers). The article lists in the tables horizontal compressive forces obtained by measuring, which help to deduce the height of a bulk material column and its cross-section S2 m2, defined by the width b m and height h m of the belts interspace. Knowledge of the magnitude of horizontal forces acting on conveyor rollers allows us to suitably design the stiffness of the compression coil spring in the pressing mechanism. It eliminates the undesirable shifts of working surfaces from the conveyor belts (carrying and covering), which prevents the flow of the transported material grains over the edges of the conveyor belts. One of the possible designs for the pressure mechanism is presented in this article. The article shows the values of the difference between the ratio of the measured compressive forces against the value of theoretically calculated stresses for different heights of the bulk material column and different heights of the interspace. For the maize material, the largest difference in the ratio of the measured compressive forces to the value of the theoretically calculated stresses was 78.1% and for river gravel, it was 71.6%.
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•A fault diagnosis approach for belt conveyor idlers based on machine learning.•MFCCs of sound signal are extracted as features.•A Gradient Boost Decision Tree model is ...developed.•High accuracy of fault diagnosis is achieved by using MFCCs & GBDT.
Belt conveyor systems are widely utilized in transportation applications. This research aims to achieve fault detection on belt conveyor idlers with an acoustic signal based method. The presented novel method uses Mel Frequency Cepstrum Coefficients and Gradient Boost Decision Tree for feature extraction and classification. Thirteen Mel Frequency Cepstrum Coefficients are extracted from acquired sound signal as features. A Gradient Boost Decision Tree model is developed and trained. After training, the model is applied to a testing dataset. Results show that the trained model can achieve diagnosis accuracy of 94.53%, as well as recall rate up to 99.7%. This study verifies the proposed method for acoustic signal based fault detection of belt conveyor idlers.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for the safety performance measurement of belt conveyor systems.Design/methodology/approachA structural methodology of graph theory and ...matrix approach is used for developing a framework for safety performance measurement of belt conveyor systems.FindingsThe development of a framework for safety performance measurement of belt conveyor systems is essential for ensuring plant safety. For this, safety performance factors, including design and operating contextual factors of belt conveyor systems, are identified. The factors along with their interrelations are modeled using digraph. An equivalent matrix of the digraph provided safety performance function (SPF) of belt conveyor systems, leading to the development of a safety performance index (SPI).Practical implicationsThe developed framework will enable the designers for evaluating and comparing alternative designs of conveyor systems from the safety viewpoint. The plant operators can make inferences from the SPI to identify the weak contextual factors in the plant and develop action plans for its mitigation.Originality/valueThe paper is novel and employs graph theory and matrix approach for safety performance measurement. The methodology helps in the quantitative evaluation of the safety performance of belt conveyor systems.
Uncertainty can lead to jitter or overshoot in mechanical systems, necessitating the design of multiple constraints to stabilize them. This paper proposes a control structure based on the generalized ...Udwadia–Kalaba equation to address these constraints simultaneously. An uncertain dynamical model is developed, incorporating both equality and inequality constraints. By integrating diffeomorphism theory, a robust control strategy is designed to ensure compliance with these constraints. Utilizing the Lyapunov approach, the uniform boundedness and uniform ultimate boundedness of the dynamical system are demonstrated. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed control method is validated through its application to a belt conveyor system.
•Equality constraints and inequality constraints are simultaneously considered in dynamical system based on the generalized Udwadia–Kalaba approach.•A robust control for handling inequality constraints that does not affect equality constraints is designed.•The robust control can render the uncertain system uniformly bounded and uniformly ultimately bounded.•The method is proposed of applying inequality constraints to belt conveyors to avoid belt breakage and folding faults in engineering.
Belt conveyor haulage is an often-preferred haulage method in raw material transport of industrial facilities. Main components of the system often subject to breakdowns are belt, drums, roller ...systems and belt tension drum systems. Among these components, belt breakdowns are belt ruptures due to corrosion, inability of rotation due to corrosion and dust in cylinders and mechanical failures in drum systems and components. In this study, risk evaluation was carried out on probable risks due to breakdowns and faults in a bad conveyor facility. Realised accidents in industry are considered to specify risks. In the first step of the study, Failure modes and effects analysis was employed. Upon results of FMEA, event tree analysis was carried out for each risk in order to display and decrease severity degrees of risks.
The use of Pipe Belt Conveyor (PBC) has gained more and more popularity in bulk solids handling. Compared to the traditional trough conveyors, PBC can allow tighter curves and steeper gradients of ...conveyor routes and thus better suits the applications in difficult terrains. It has many unique mechanical characteristics which are not well understood yet. This paper proposes a coupled finite element model (FEM) and discrete element method (DEM) model to investigate the mechanics of a PBC system, with particular reference to the distribution of contact force in the pipe section. This FEM/DEM model considers comprehensively the formation of pipe from a flat belt and the microscopic structure of discrete particles under gravity, and thus can well describe the states of both conveyor belt and bulk solids. The predictions of the contact forces are shown to agree well with the previous experimental data under different conditions. Using this approach, the distribution of contact forces under different load conditions, i.e. zero gravity (ZG), empty pipe (VF 0%), volume fill of 40% (VF 40%) and 80% (VF 80%) are obtained and their dependencies on the rotation angle of pipe are investigated.
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•A coupled FEM/DEM model is proposed for simulating pipe conveyor systems.•The coupled model can well describe the states of conveyor belt and conveyed materials.•It can quantitatively predict the distribution of contact force in pipe section.•The contact forces are less sensitive in loaded pipe than those in empty pipe.
Damage to a belt conveyor idler will increase the downtime and maintenance cost, so it is very important to diagnose its fault. At present, the fault diagnosis of the idler of a belt conveyor is ...mostly based on vibration and temperature signal. However, contact fault diagnosis approaches are severely limited when sensors are inconvenient to install or when vibration and temperature signals cannot be returned. In this special case, the non-contact fault diagnosis method, represented by measuring acoustic signals, becomes a necessary means. To effectively extract mechanical state information from sound signals of belt conveyors and identify typical mechanical faults, we propose a fault detection method based on sample center distance weighted (support vector data description (SVDD)) and multi-frame fusion (Mel-frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC)) features. Aiming at the disadvantage that single frame MFCC features and traditional SVDD are susceptible to noise, multi-frame fusion MFCC optimization features are used as samples, and the weighted SVDD model based on sample center distance is used for fault detection. Finally, the overall recognition accuracy of the experiment is greatly improved. It is proved that MFCC features of multi-frame fusion sound signal and weighted SVDD fault detection based on sample center distance can effectively determine whether there is a fault in the of belt conveyor idler.
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