Doctoral Dissertations

Keywords and Phrases

Bucket Design and Analysis; Discrete Element Modeling; Front End Loader; Load Haul Dump; Performance analysis; Prototype testing

Abstract

"The large sizes of mining equipment pose challenges for analysis using experiments or simulation. While scaled physical and simulation models can address this challenge, no previous work has explored how similitude theory and modeling can provide valid analysis of large equipment such as rubber tire loaders. The objective of this research was to apply similitude theory and discrete element modeling (DEM) to study the effect of different digging parameters on the penetration and the draft on the buckets of rubber tire loaders. The work sought to (1) test the hypothesis that the geometry of a rubber tire loader bucket and operating conditions significantly affects the resistive force (draft) and penetration; (2) test the hypothesis that different geometry orientations and operating conditions of a rubber tire loader bucket significantly affects draft and penetration; (3) apply DEM to scale models of rubber tire loader buckets to understand the effect of bucket geometry, orientations, and operating conditions on draft and penetration; and (4) evaluate the effectiveness of using discrete element models and similitude theory to predict draft and penetration.

The results show that geometry, muckpile particle sizes, height above the floor, rake angle, speed, and motor power output are correlated to penetration and draft. This work has demonstrated that we can build valid DEM models for predicting at a larger scale. The chamfer angle of semi-spade bucket cutting blades significantly affects the draft on the buckets and 30° chamfer cut angle performs the best with the lowest peak resistive forces and energy consumption. The work finds that the forces observed during the rotation phase of the simulation are lower than the observed forces during penetration"--Abstract, page iii.

Advisor(s)

Awuah-Offei, Kwame, 1975-

Committee Member(s)

Frimpong, Samuel
Sherizadeh, Taghi
Eckert, Andreas
Nadendla, V. Sriram Siddhardh

Department(s)

Mining Engineering

Degree Name

Ph. D. in Mining Engineering

Comments

the author is thankful to Komatsu Mining Corps of Longview, Texas for funding his research work.

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Summer 2021

Pagination

xiv, 192 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographic references (pages 169-191).

Rights

© 2021 Atta Ur Rehman, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 11926

Electronic OCLC #

1286687000

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