Doctoral Dissertations

Keywords and Phrases

Equipment Health; Equipment Performance; Equipment Reliability; Mining; Wheel Loaders

Abstract

"This research attempts to provide a fundamental understanding into the relationship between the productivity of material handling equipment, specifically wheel loaders, and their ability to operate reliably when subjected to high overload conditions. The overall aim is to determine the effect of overloading the bucket on wheel loader reliability. The specific objectives of the research are to: 1) evaluate the effect of overloading the bucket on wheel loader productivity; 2) examine the effect of overloading the bucket on hydraulic pressures in the hoist cylinders (used as a proxy for forces on a wheel loader); and 3) investigate the effect of overloading the bucket on the reliability of structural components of a wheel loader.

To achieve these objectives, the research used data from on-board equipment monitors from the global fleet of ultra-class wheel loaders for a specific original equipment manufacturer to test the various research hypotheses. The data included production data, failure and repair data, and hydraulic cylinder pressures, which were used as a proxy for stresses on structural components. ANOVA and Pearson and Spearman correlations tests were performed on data samples to test the hypotheses. Duty-cycle relationships were established using linear life stress relationships ratios for the wheel loaders structural components. The research showed that, while higher bucket loads increase productivity, there is evidence that they slow down the loading cycle, may be detrimental to productivity. The hoist cylinder pressure increased with increasing payload weight. The reliability of the structural components was similar in both the standard and duty-cycle cases; although, the accuracy of the reliability models increased when the models accounted for duty-cycles"--Abstract, page iii.

Advisor(s)

Awuah-Offei, Kwame, 1975-

Committee Member(s)

Worsey, Paul Nicholas
Frimpong, Samuel
Gertsch, Leslie S.
Aouad, Nassib

Department(s)

Mining Engineering

Degree Name

Ph. D. in Mining Engineering

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Spring 2018

Pagination

xviii, 196 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographic references (pages 183-195).

Rights

© 2018 Eric Raymond Achelpohl, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 11250

Electronic OCLC #

1041856826

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