A DEM study was conducted into the headpulley transition
effects of bucket elevators. From the work completed it is
apparent that the effective stiffness of the belt/bucket interface
has a noteworthy impact on the buckets bulk material
discharge pattern.
We have illustrated a capacity for modelling multi-body
systems coupled within DEM to provide insights that cannot
be achieved using alternate methods.
We have shown the value ofDEMin helping to understand
bucket discharge patterns which will be expanded upon in
future work by considering a range of common bucket profiles
in both physical experiments and numerical simulations.
We have shown a capacity to account for ‘carry back’ during
operation. This is the material returned to the boot of
the elevator by virtue of premature discharge and incorrect
positioning of the splitter or head box arrangement.
The flow of the bulk material within the bucket agrees
with video footage collected at the University of Newcastle
and this provides confidence for studies into more geometrically
complex bucket shapes. The general discharge
pattern predicted from the simulation agrees with the footage
collected from the laboratory model, though the lack of a
synchronised rotary position reading on the headpulley does
limit the capacity to provide quantitative comparisons at this
stage.
Overall, this paper illustrates that DEM techniques can be
realistically applied to complex mechanical handling devices
such as bucket elevators to provide insight into the complex
interactions that occur during operation.