Nomenclature:

D drum outside diameter aG sliding angle

FS bearing force acting on the pulley shaft friction coefficient of the belt on the drum
surface
F1 force of the tight span min minimum friction coefficient required to
avoid sliding of the belt on the drum
surface
F2 force of the slack span angle measured from the belt entry point
Ttot total torque applied to the pulley shaft rotational speed
a contact angle measured from the belt
 Stress in the radial direction
entry point
r radius variable
 Stress in the tangential direction
a Cylinder inner radius b Cylinder outer radius
 Constants of the Airy stress equation  Surface hydrostatic pressure

1 Introduction
Lignite produced in surface mines of the Public Power Corporation of Greece, is mainly
transported by large-scale belt-conveyor systems. They offer many unique advantages such as central
control and management, high efficiency and continuous transportation of bulk material. The conveyor
system installed in the Amyntaion Lignite Centre of the West Macedonia region of Greece, covers a
total distance of 22 km and consists of 50 independent belt drives1. They are concurrently controlled
and have a supply rate of 19,000 t/h. One of the most failure-critical parts is the conveyor pulley. It
consists of (a) the drum (also called shell) and the end-plates welded on both ends; and (b) the shaft,
which is connected to the hubs of the drum end-plates by locking assemblies. Apart from the high cost
of the members of the pulley, the huge loss of earnings has to be taken into account, when considering
that the transportation has to be interrupted for at least two and a half days in case of failure. Due to
their wide use and high financial interest, conveyor pulleys are still the subject of numerous research
works.
Lange (1963) was among the first who studied the stress field of the pulley drum and was able to
formalize the tri-axial stress state as a Fourier expansion. Schmolzi (1974) investigated the keyless
locking assemblies used to connect the shaft and the end-plate hubs. King (1985) improved the design
of pulleys by taking into account the form of the end-plates and proposed the so-called L-shaped end-
plates. Kalikhman and Umanskii (1970) and later Umanskii and Kalikhman (1971) showed that,
including a mid-plane diaphragm reduces the developing stress. Qiu and Sethi (1993), presented a
pulley stress analysis method based on reformatted transfer-matrix. They developed transfer-matrix
based elements for the complete pulley assembly, namely the shaft, the end-plates and the drum, and
managed to calculate accurately the resulting stress field. Sethi and Nordell (1993) evaluated a great
variety of pulley designs using the Finite Element Method (FEM) and considered fatigue, as well as
design limitations and manufacturing criteria. Affolter et al. (2007) studied the impact of the location,
and of the cross section of the welds using FEM. Lill (2007) stated that, as long as the stress limits
given in BS 7608 (1993) are not exceeded, the welds are extremely unlikely to fail. Ravikumar and
Chattopadhyay (1999) developed a custom finite element software utilizing a 3-noded, thick, conical
shell and a triangular, ring element. They studied the pulley as an integral structure and managed to
show the mutual interdependence of the pulley components. Martins and Kvesdy (2012) compared
the application of FEM with analytical methods and concluded that FEM is favourable, although the
analytical methods are still being widely used. Wang et al. (2011) incorporated the conveyor-belt
contact in their analysis, and Li et al. (2010) calculated the expected service life of a particular drum
applying rain-flow counting method, P-S-N curves and the Miner rule. More recently, Wu and Guan
(2013) used 3D, parametric modelling in the FEM analysis of drums. Yong-cun et al. (2012) as well as
Yuan et al. (2014) optimized the pulley design in ANSYS. An important aspect to be considered is the
1
The installation data are kindly provided by the P.P.C of Greece from the installation and operation manuals.
impact of the residual stresses caused by the welds. Styger and Laubscher (2011) analysed a quarter
model of a pulley using 3D, linear, hexahedral elements. They focused on the residual stresses after
welding and stress relieving, and pointed out that the stresses decreased, but they remained tensile.
The present study focuses on the design, and the mechanical behaviour of drums in conveyor
pulleys used at conveyor belt systems of the Public Power Corporation of Greece. At first, the loads
acting on the drum are determined. Specifically, the external loads are measured by means of load
cells. Then, a 3D FE model is set up and loads are applied according to the creep model, as shown by
Mihailidis et al. (2015). In order to reduce the developed stresses, a mid-plane diaphragm is
implemented in the design. It is shown, that for the same load, the resulting maximum von Mises
stress is almost 25 % less than in the drum without the diaphragm. Finally, an improved design is
proposed, without welds. In this way, the durability of the drum is considerably increased.

2 Model description
2.1 Belt-conveyor driving system
Figure 1 shows an overall view of the complete installation. The mine is over 220 m deep,
constantly expanding, which results in inclination reaching over 12.2% for the belt conveyor systems.
Figure 2 shows the layout of the conveyor driving system. It consists of two driving and one pre-
tensioning pulleys. Each driving pulley is powered by two e-motors (one at each side) rated at 1250
kW at 988 rpm. Each motor transmits its power through a two stage gear reducer, with a total
transmission ratio i=14.78, resulting in a linear belt velocity of 5.25 m/s. The bearing forces are
captured and recorded by two load cells attached symmetrically on either side of one of the driving
pulleys as shown in Figure 2.

(a) Overall view (b) Driving station

Figure 1: Conveyor belt system of the lignite mine in Amyntaion, West Macedonia

Driving Pulley

Pretensioning Pulley

Driving Pulley Load cell

Figure 2: Layout of a driving station. A second load cell is placed on the opposite side of the pulley

2.2 Drum loads

In steady state operating conditions, the drum is loaded by the normal (i.e. radial) forces and the
friction applied by the belt, as well as the torque and bearing forces applied on the shaft. There is no
generally accepted model describing the friction interaction between belt and drum. Two different
models can be found in literature:
The first, called the creep model, assumes that the existence of friction depends entirely on the
relative motion (creep) of the belt on the drum surface. The belt-pulley contact arc is divided in an
adhesion and a sliding zone. This model was initially developed by Euler and is widely adopted in
industrial applications. A comprehensive review can be found in the review by Fawcett (1981).
The second, is the shear model proposed by Firbank (1970). It assumes a more realistic modelling
of the belt, consisting of a pliable elastomer and embedded high strength cords. The belt adheres to the
pulley surface if the shear is less than the maximum friction force. Otherwise, it slides over the drum
surface causing a tangential friction force.
Comparisons between the two models (Kong and Parker, 2005) shows that the distribution of the
belt tension and friction over the belt-drum contact arc are markedly different. Although the shear
model seems closer to modern drives, the adoption of the creep model for the current case was
justified because it is well established, simpler and allows to be on the safe side.
The forces of the tight span F1 and the slack span F2 of the belt conveyor can be calculated from
the total torque applied to the pulley shaft Ttot and the total bearing force FS of the shaft:
FS Ttot
F1 = + (1)
2 D
FS Ttot
F2 = (2)
2 D
Total torque Ttot and bearing force FS are obtained from the readouts of the ammeters of the motors
and the load-cell strain meter respectively.
The distribution of the resulting normal (i.e. in radial direction) and friction (i.e. tangential) forces,
shown in Figure 3c and 3d, depends on the friction coefficient of the belt on the drum surface. The
coefficient is unknown and difficult to estimate because it depends on many parameters, such as
humidity, temperature and surface condition. Therefore, two values of the friction coefficient were
used in the current analysis:
The first is the minimum friction coefficient min required to transmit the torque. It can be
calculated by setting the sliding angle G equal to the contact angle = in the well-known Euler
formula.
1 F 1 F
min = ln 1 = ln 1 (3)
G F2 F2
The second is a rather typical value of the friction coefficient = 0.75. In this case, the sliding
angle G is given also by the Euler formula:
1 F 1 F
G = ln 1 = ln 1 . (4)
F2 0.75 F2
Figure 3a shows the normal force distribution for the two friction cases studied, over the contact
angle and Figure 3b the friction force distribution respectively.

(a) Normal force distribution over the contact (b) Friction force distribution over the contact
angle angle
(c) Schematic load distribution on a driving drum (d) Schematic load distribution on a driving
cross-section for the =0.75 case drum cross-section for the =0.35 case

Figure 3: Normal (a) and fiction (b) loads on the drum for the two considered cases of friction
coefficient; (c) a free body diagram of the drum showing the load distribution in the case of =0.75;
(d) a free body diagram of the drum showing the load distribution in the case of =0.325

2.3 Alternative designs

Figure 4a shows the initial design of the pulley. The drum is made of 32 mm thick, plain-steel sheet
and is welded to the end-plates. The shaft is connected by keyless, locking assemblies. The outside
diameter of the drum is 1500 mm and its width 2600 mm. The reinforced design, shown in Figure 4b,
is identical, except for a 30 mm thick diaphragm welded in the mid-plane. Both the initial and
reinforced designs, have a high concentration of stress at the welding area, resulting in failures
initiated at the Heat Affected Zones (HAZ). The cracks propagate along the circumference and
eventually, under cyclic loading, rupture. The weld is loaded in an unfavourable manner by the drum
bending which creates tensile stress at the weld root. By introducing a mechanical interconnection the
load is supported through compressive forces of tangential shearing of the weld. The improved design
features new end-plates, which are no longer welded to the drum. Instead, they are connected by
means of 72 pins each. The shaft is connected by keyless, locking assemblies in all versions.

(a) Initial design

(d) End-plate cross-section of the initial and

improved design
 (b) Reinforced design

(c) Improved design

(e) End-plate cross-section of the improved design

Figure 4: The three different pulley designs are shown in (a)-(c). The initial and the reinforced design
share the same end-plate design (d), while the improved design has redesigned end-plates (e)
eliminating welds.

2.4 FE models
The entire pulley assembly consisting of the drum, the end-plates and the shaft was modelled.
In this way, the impact of the elasticity of the shaft and the end-plates was taken into account. The
keyless, locking assemblies used to connect the shaft and the end-plates, were modelled as solid
blocks. Meshing was carried out in the ANSA pre-processor developed by BETA CAE (2014). The
normal and friction nodal forces were calculated as described in the Drum loads chapter and stored in
a CSV file. This file is imported in ANSA by a PYTHON script. The shaft was assumed fixed and it
was checked that the reaction torque was equal to Ttot, and the sum of the support forces was equal to
the total bearing force FS.
The mesh of the initial design had 287,296 hexa elements, 15,372 penta elements and 326,436
nodes. The model of the reinforced design comprised of 299,596 hexa elements, 15,372 penta
elements and had 343,236 nodes. Finally, the model of the improved design, shown in Figure 5,
consisted of 6,062,258 tetra elements and 1,360,520 nodes. The framed area was meshed with 5 mm
element length, while the rest of the model with 20 mm element length. The variable element length is
selected based on an optimization as presented in Mihailidis (2015).
 (a) Finite element model of improved design (b) Detailed cross-section of the improved design

Figure 5: Meshed pulley models of the improved design. The area around the pins is densely
meshed to increase accuracy.

3 Results
The models were solved utilizing the MSC NASTRAN solver and the resulting stress fields were
visualized using the META software developed by BETA CAE.
At first, a preliminary validation was made by following means: Instead of the calculated belt
forces, hydrostatic pressure was applied on the drum surface. The resulting stresses were then
compared to the analytically obtained ones. Very good agreement was found.
Then, comparative calculations were carried out in order to study the influence of the friction on
the resulting stress field. The longitudinal belt force distribution was assumed uniform. Its impact was
studied by Mihailidis et at. (2015).
Figure 6 shows the von Mises stress field and the deformations obtained for the two friction cases
considered on the initial drum design. It is noteworthy that the occurring maximum von Mises stress is
almost equal in both cases, despite the quite different load distribution and the resulting deformation.
This is valid for the reinforced design as well, Figure 7.
Figure 8 shows, for the initial and reinforced designs, the stress at two points, which are located on
the outside and the inside surface of the drum; at 120 mm distance from the end-plate along a full
rotation. The maximum von Mises stress is fluctuating between 2.44 and 15.90 N/mm2 on the outside
surface, and between 0.23 and 34.23 N/mm2 on the inside surface. It is notable that, these figures are
much smaller in the reinforced pulley. In both designs, the maximum von Mises stress occurs on the
inside surface of the drum near the end-plate. Consequently, designing welds near, or at this position
should be avoided.

(a) Von Mises stress distribution (b) Von Mises stress distribution
Low friction (= 0.325) Typical friction (= 0.75)
(c) Displacement, Magnitude (disp. factor 1000) (d) Displacement, Magnitude (disp. factor 1000)
Low friction (= 0.325) Typical friction (= 0.75)

Figure 6: Von Mises stress field (N/mm2) and displacement (mm) of the initial drum without mid-
plane diaphragm (nominal load case)

(a) Von Mises stress distribution (b) Von Mises stress distribution
Low friction (= 0.325) Typical friction (= 0.75)

(c) Displacement, Magnitude (disp. factor 1000) (d) Displacement, Magnitude (disp. factor 1000)
Low friction (= 0.325) Typical friction (= 0.75)

Figure 7: Von Mises stress field (N/mm2) and displacement (mm) of the initial drum with mid-
plane diaphragm (nominal load case)
 40 40

20 20
Stress (N/mm2)

Stress (N/mm2)
0 0
Von-Mises Von-Mises
-20 Normal-X -20 Normal-X
Shear XY Shear XY
Shear ZY Shear ZY
-40 -40
-180 -135 -90 -45 0 45 90 135 180 -180 -135 -90 -45 0 45 90 135 180
Circumferential position () Circumferential position ()
(a) Stresses on the outside surface (b) Stresses on the outside surface
Initial design Reinforced design
40 40

20 20

Stress (N/mm2)
Stress (N/mm2)

0 0
Von-Mises Von-Mises
-20 Normal-X -20 Normal-X
Shear XY Shear XY
Shear ZY Shear ZY
-40 -40
-180 -135 -90 -45 0 45 90 135 180 -180 -135 -90 -45 0 45 90 135 180
Circumferential position () Circumferential position ()
(c) Stresses on the inside surface (d) Stresses on the inside surface
Initial design Reinforced design

Figure 8: Stress distribution over the circumference (typical friction, = 0.75) (Nominal load case)

Having already proved that the friction coefficient between the drum and the belt does not play an
important role on the magnitude of the maximum von Mises stress, the typical friction coefficient was
used in the final calculation on the improved design.
The loads applied on the drum were calculated considering (a) the maximum bearing force acting
on the pulley shaft, as measured by the Public Power Corporation of Greece, and (b) the maximum
torque, obtained by multiplying the nominal torque by the start-up overload factor 1.75. It was verified
that the occurring sliding angle was smaller than the contact angle.

Von Mises stress distribution Displacement, Magnitude (disp. factor 1000)

(a) Initial design

 (b) Reinforced design

(c) Improved design

Figure 9: Von Mises (N/mm2) stress field and displacement magnitude (mm) of all variants.
(Nominal torque increased by an overload factor 1.75)
The results of the von Mises stress distribution and the displacement are shown in Figure 9. Figure
10 shows the stress field on the cross-section of the improved design. The chart in Figure 11 shows the
stress distribution along the drum obtained in the considered designs. It can be clearly seen that the
mid-plane effectively reinforces the structure, since the maximum occurring von Mises stress is
reduced. The improved design avoids the welding of the end plates and the shell, which are made of
cast steel and sheet plain-steel respectively, therefore it is chosen for further experimental evaluation.

Figure 10: Von Mises (N/mm2) stress field on the cross-section of the improved design. (Nominal
torque increased by an overload factor 1.75)
 60
Improved design
Reinforced design
50
Initial design

Von Mises stress (N/mm2)

40

30

20

10

0
-1400 -1000 -600 -200 200 600 1000 1400
Drum width z (mm)
Figure 11: Comparison of the von Mises distribution along the axis of the initial, the reinforced and
the improved design. The improved design, due to the pins relying on contact, has some non-
contacting nodes resulting in discontinuity of the calculated stresses. (Nominal torque increased by an
overload factor 1.75)
4 Discussion
In this study, the Von Mises equivalent stress criterion has been employed as a comparison tool
between three pulley designs. Although the criterion is not capable to determine the durability of the
drum it is well suited to evaluate the design. Eliminating welds in principal increases the fatigue life
limit, but the alternative method of joining had to be cross-evaluated with the initial and reinforced
designs and proved to maintain a similar behaviour to the welded reinforced pulley. The proposed
method of joining appears to have an increased upfront production cost that can be annulled by an
increased life. A more in depth fatigue analysis will be presented in a following publications along
with field test results.

5 Conclusions
In this study, three alternative pulley designs were analysed using the Finite Element Method. The
following conclusions are drawn:
The friction of the belt on the drum surface affects the force distribution and the torque
transmission capacity, but it has almost no impact on the occurring maximum von Mises stress.
Although steady state operating conditions were assumed, the resulting stresses are strongly
fluctuating. Fatigue limits should be considered.
The maximum von Mises stress occurs on the inside surface of the drum near the end-plate. This
means that, designing welds near or at this position should be avoided.
The mid-plane diaphragm is very effective in reducing the stresses. In the pulley studied, the
maximum von Mises stress was reduced by almost 25 % between the initial and the reinforced
design.
Using the improved end-plate cross-section the displacement decreases significantly.
The improved design avoids welding and promises to exhibit a longer service-life.
The next step is to test experimental specimens under real operating conditions in the field.

Acknowledgements
 The authors would like to thank the Public Power Corporation of Greece, as well as BETA CAE
Systems, which provides the ANSA and META software, for their support.

References
Affolter C., Piskoty G., Koller R., Zgraggen M., Rtti T. F. (2007), Fatigue in the shell of a conveyor
drum, Engineering Failure Analysis, Vol. 14, pp. 1038-1052.
BSI (1993), BS 7608:1993 Code of practice for fatigue design and assessment of steel structures
BETA CAE Systems S.A. (2014), ANSA version 15.1.x Users Guide
Fawcett J. N. (1981), Chain and belt drives-a review, The Shock and Vibrations Digest, Vol 13, No
5, pp. 5-12.
Firbank T. C. (1970), Mechanics of belt drives, International Journal of Mechanical Science, Vol.
12, pp. 1053-1063.
Kalikhman G. L., Umanskii E. S. (1970), The influence of a reinforcing ring on the stress distribution
in belt conveyor drums, Strength of Materials, Vol. 1, pp. 356-363.
King T. J. (1985), The Function and Mechanism of Conveyor Pulley Drums, paper presented at
Beltcon 3 Conference, 9-11 September, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Kong L., Parker R. G. (2005). Microslip in flat belt drives. Proceedings of the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, Vol. 219, pp. 1097-
1106.
Lange H. (1963), Investigation in Stressing of Conveyor Belt Drums, PhD Thesis, TU Hannover,
Hannover, Germany
Li J., Wang L., Wang X. (2010), Fatigue life reliability analysis of belt conveyor driving drums based
on FEM, Advanced Materials Research, Vol. 118-120, June 2010, pp. 492-496.
Lill A. (2007), Conveyor Pulley Design, paper presented at Beltcon 14 Conference, 1-2 August,
Johannesburg, South Africa.
Martins J. A., Kvesdy I. (2012). Overview in the Application of FEM in Mining and the Study of
Case: Stress Analysis in Pulleys of Stacker-Reclaimers: FEM vs. Analytical in Dr. Farzad
Ebrahimi (Ed.), Finite Element Analysis - Applications in Mechanical Engineering, InTech, pp.
277-296.
Mihailidis A., Bouras E., Athanasopoulos E. (2015), FEM analysis of a belt conveyor driving drum,
paper presented at 6th BETA CAE International Conference, 10-12 June, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Qiu X., Sethi V. (1993). A New Pulley Stress Analysis Method Based on Modified Transfer Matrix,
Bulk Solids Handling, Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 713-724.
Ravikumar M., Chattopadhyay A. (1999). Integral analysis of conveyor pulley using finite element
method, Computers & Structures, Vol. 71, pp. 303-332.
Schmoltzi W. (1974), Designing Drums with Transverse Shafts for Belt Conveyors PhD Thesis, TU
Hannover, Hannover, Germany
Sethi V., Nordell L. K. (1993). Modern Pulley Design Techniques and Failure Analysis Methods,
paper presented in AIME- SME Annual Convention 1993, Feburary, Reno, Nevada.
Styger G., Laubscher R. F. (2011), An investigation into the effect of the manufacturing process on
the fatigue performance of conveyor pulleys, paper presented at Beltcon 16 Conference, 2-3
August, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Umanskii E. S., Kalikhman G. L. (1971). Experimental investigation of the stress condition in belt
conveyor drums, Strength of Materials, Vol. 2, pp. 670-673.
Wang S, Zhang X, Wu K, Sun Y (2011). Finite element analysis for belt conveyor's drum. Advanced
Materials Research, 228-229, 764-770.
Wu Z, Guan W J (2013). Three-dimensional parametric modeling and finite element analysis of drum
on belt conveyer. Applied Mechanics and Materials, 319, 474-476.
Yong-cun G, Zhu-fen W, Kun H, Gang C (2012). Heavy driving drum parametric modeling analysis
system development. Applied Mechanics and Materials, 130-134, 641-645.
Yuan X, Yang S, Niu Q (2014). Analysis and Design of the Roller for Belt Conveyor Based on
ANSYS. Advanced Materials Research, 1027, 315-319.

Author Biographies
Prof. A. Mihailidis is Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Machine Elements & Machine Design
of the School of Mechanical Engineering of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Research
interests include machine elements, gear and power transmission systems, tribology and thermo-
elastohydrodynamic lubrication, and automotive engineering. Former President and current Vice
President of the Balkan Association of Power Transmissions.

Prof. G. Savaidis is Professor at the Laboratory of Machine Elements and Machine Design of the
School of Mechanical Engineering of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. His major
topics of research are the structural integrity of engineering components, machine elements and
welded structures, the mechanics of materials, experimental and theoretical mechanics and fracture
mechanics.

E. Bouras is a researcher at the Laboratory of Machine Elements & Machine Design of the School of
Mechanical Engineering of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Research interests include finite
element method analysis, machine elements, gear and power transmissions and automotive
engineering. Participation in formula student race car design.

E. Athanasopoulos is researcher at the Laboratory of Machine Elements & Machine Design of the
School of Mechanical engineering of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Research interests
include machine elements, gear and power transmissions, tribology, automotive engineering and
electronics. Participation in formula student race car design.

N. Ganavaras is Director of Amynteon Mine, West Macedonia Lignite Center, Public Power
Corporation of Greece (PPC).

I. Topalidis is Head of Mechanical Maintenance Sector of Amynteon Mine, West Macedonia Lignite
Center, Public Power Corporation of Greece (PPC).

D. Karageorgos is Head of Electrical Maintenance Sector of Amynteon Mine, West Macedonia

Lignite Center, Public Power Corporation of Greece (PPC).

I. Rampidis is a mechanical engineer of Mechanical Maintenance Sector of Amyntaion Mine, West

Macedonia Lignite Center, Public Power Corporation of Greece (PPC).
Annex A
The generalized Airy stress function for a torus is defined as following
 
 =  +  ln +     +     ln (1)
 

It is a biharmonic equation as it fulfils the condition   = 0

 1  1     1  1   
  =   + +     + + 
(2)
r r  r  r r  r  

The normal and shear stresses are given by the following equations:

 1  1     

 = =  +  =  + 2  +  1 + 2ln 
(3)
  r r r   r 
 1 

 =  = C  + 2  +  3 + 2ln 
(4)
r r 
 1   1 
" = = +  =0
 r  r 

For a hydrostatic pressure exerted on the outer cylindrical face the boundary condition are

For r = a

 &r = a' = 0 (5)

+ 2 +   = 0
(6)
(
For r = b

 &r = b' =  (7)

+ 2  +   = 
(8)
*

Therefore

 = 0 (9)
a b
 =  
(10)
b a
b
 = 
(11)
2&b a '


And finally the stress equations can be written as

b a r 

 = 
(12)
&b  a ' r 
b r  + a

 =  
(13)
&b a ' r