Sie sind auf Seite 1von 10

Mining Technology

Transactions of the Institutions of Mining and Metallurgy: Section A

ISSN: 1474-9009 (Print) 1743-2863 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ymnt20

Power requirement prediction for armoured face


conveyors

A. R. Broadfoot & R. E. Betz

To cite this article: A. R. Broadfoot & R. E. Betz (2000) Power requirement prediction for
armoured face conveyors, Mining Technology, 109:2, 93-101

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/mnt.2000.109.2.93

Published online: 05 Sep 2013.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 4

View related articles

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at


http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ymnt20

Download by: [University of California, San Diego] Date: 16 March 2016, At: 13:01
Power requirement prediction for armoured face conveyors

A. R. Broadfoot and R. E. Betz

Synopsis configurations. The approach taken here is to develop a


Longwall armoured face conveyors (AFC) have tradi- comprehensive physical model of the friction forces acting
tionally been designed with the use of a combination of in the AFC system. If the appropriate parameters for a confi-
heuristics and simple models. However, as longwalls guration are substituted into this model, predictions of the
increase in length these design procedures are proving power and torque requirements of the tailgate and maingate
to be inadequate. The result has been either costly loss AFC motors can then be made.
of production due to stalling of the AFC, or component The model must take into account static and dynamic
failure, or larger capital investment than necessary conditions. The dynamics are important because extra torque
due to overdesign. To allow accurate estimation of the is required to accelerate the AFC in a reasonable time. Long
power requirements for an AFC a comprehensive acceleration times can stress the drive components and result
Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 13:01 16 March 2016

model has been developed of all the friction forces in possible failure.
associated with the AFC. Predictions of power require- Remarkably little has been published on AFC loading
ments obtained from this model are compared with issues. Noteworthy is the contribution of Morley and co-
measurements from two mine faces. workers,1 which addressed many topics that are the subject of
the present work. An attempt was made to draw together the
many separate sources of information on the various compo-
The economic viability of future longwall coal mining will nents of the longwall system so that a predictive model could
depend on increased productivity, achieved from longer faces be developed for the power and torque requirements of the
by the use of coal-cutting machines of larger output potential. longwall AFC. Expressions were also developed for estima-
This has highlighted inherent design problems with the tion of the maximum length of the AFC, given a particular
armoured face conveyor (AFC) and its associated electrical AFC chain configuration, and the sensitivity of the model to
and mechanical drive systems. The difficulties result from the the various parameters was investigated.
fact that longwall system design, to date, has been based The work reported here differs from that of Morley and
largely on heuristics obtained via experience, coupled with co-workers in its detailed development of the modelling
simple numerical design. These techniques can result in expressions behind the design equations. In addition, ela-
overdesign and, consequently, larger than necessary capital borate models are developed for the various coal loading
cost or, alternatively, underdesign with consequent break- configurations on the AFC. The effects of horizontal and
downs and lost production. vertical snaking and pretensioning are considered in detail.
The main design problem of any longwall AFC installation How the expressions can be used to design various compo-
is to ensure that it can deal adequately with the volume of nents of the longwall system is demonstrated. The dynamics of
coal generated by the shearer. Mechanically, this obviously the starting of the conveyor system are also addressed. Finally,
means that the various components have to be strong enough the accuracy of the design equations is verified experimentally
to deal with the forces encountered during operation. against power measurements taken at two coalfaces. It is
Electrically, this requires sufficient power and torque to be reassuring that many of the conclusions of Morley and co-
available to meet the peak demands imposed by the conveyor workers also emerged on completion of the present analysis.
and the shearer. The crucial factor that influences the power A more comprehensive treatment of the issues outlined
and torque requirements is the cumulative friction force on here can be found on the second author’s web site.4
the conveyor. The dominant factors that determine this fric-
tion force are: (1) volume of coal on the conveyor; (2) friction Friction model
between the coal and the AFC; (3) steel-on-steel friction of
the AFC chains on the AFC pans; (4) degree of bunkering of The friction model used is standard and can be found in most
the coal on the AFC, which results in coal-on-coal friction as physics texts;2 for convenience it is repeated here. The maxi-
well as coal-on-steel friction; (5) alignment, or snaking, of the mum static load acting against a force that is attempting to
AFC along the face and at the drive ends; and (6) amount of move an inclined body is
carry-back coal in the return races under the AFC.
One immediately obvious approach for the determination Fs = (µsMcosq ± Msinq)g (1)
of the loadings on an AFC system is to take measurements of
the torques on the shafts of the face machines. This technique where Fs is opposing force due to static load; µs is coefficient
is able to determine the loadings on existing configurations, of static friction; M is mass of the body, kg; q is angle of
but is not very useful for prediction of the loadings on new incline, radians; and g is acceleration due to gravity.
A similar expression can be written for the kinetic friction
where the coefficient of friction is µk, which is typically 75%
of µs.
Paper presented in 1995 at the Institution of Mining Engineers
Newcastle Branch Convention in Australia and at the IEEE–IAS
Shearer loading model
Annual meeting held in Orlando, U.S.A., from 8 to 12 October.
Reproduced with permission of the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers Inc. from the IEEE Transactions on Industry The following model has been developed for the volume of
Applications, 33, no. 1 1997, 80–9. © IEEE. coal cut per unit time, given the geometric dimensions of the
A93
× ×
Remark (2) If Ve is less than or equal to Vcmax, the loading
×
rate on to the AFC, Vl, is given by
× × ×
Vl = Ve – Vs (7)
×
where Vs is the spillage rate into the track between the AFC
and the face.

Remark (3) The spillage rate is particularly relevant during


the top cut of the seam since the coal spills into a gap between
the AFC and the face and is left on the top cut surface. On
the bottom cut, however, this spilled coal is shovelled on to
the AFC by its forward movement behind the shearer.

Remark (4) The maximum conveying rate occurs when y


equals 1, i.e. the drum is full of extracted material. Therefore:

V¬c max =
p2
4 ( )
Dr Dl2 - Dr2 h w tan x ° (8)

Fig. 1 Shearer drum dimensions


Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 13:01 16 March 2016

The shearer carries out two passes of the face—from the


maingate to the tailgate (top cut) and vice versa (bottom cut).
A number of observations were made for top and bottom cut
shearer drum. When a shearer is operating the mineral profiles, which justified the following approximate expres-
×
extraction rate, Ve, is dependent on the drum geometry, drum sions. With reference to Fig. 1 an approximate expression for
speed and shearer travelling speed. The mineral is trans- the volume of coal left on the top bench is
ported to the AFC by the cutting drum at a conveying rate,
× T
Vc. When the drum picks strike the coal extra mineral may Vb =
2
(D w - Dr ) l (9)
result through shattering; this is accounted for by the inclu-
sion of a ‘shattering’ factor, which has to be determined
empirically for a particular face, Slf.3 The volume of coal left between the face and the AFC is
From Fig. 1 the expression that can be written for the
volume of coal extracted is Vg = hcwgl (10)

Ve = SlfDwTl (2) Therefore, the volume of spilled material is

where l is length of travel of the shearer. Therefore, the Vstc » V b + Vg (11)


extraction rate (taking the derivative of equation 2) is
By substitution for Vg and Vb and taking the derivative one
×
Ve = SlfDwTvsh (3) can obtain the expression

where vsh is the velocity of the shearer.


T
The volume of coal conveyed is V¬stc = êé (D w - Dr ) + hc wg úùvsh (12)
ë2 û
Vc = (traverse area) ´ T =
4
(
p 2
)
Dl - Dr2 yT (4)
for the spillage rate. Substitution of equations 12 and 3 into
equation 7 gives the expression
where Dr is overall drum barrel diameter, Dl = Dr + 2Dv
where Dv is depth of the shearer cutting vanes and y is drum
T
fill factor (0£y£1). V¬ltc = êéS lf DwT - (Dw - D r ) - hcwg úùvsh (13)
From equation 4 it can be seen that the conveying rate for ë 2 û
a constant fill factor is given by
for the top-cut loading rate.
V¬c =
4
p 2
( )
D l - Dr2 yvc (5) An expression can be found similarly for the bottom-cut
loading rate. In the bottom-cut case spilled coal is almost
immediately pushed on to the AFC. Therefore, the extraction
where vc is the traverse speed of the mineral orthogonal to the rate is the loading rate plus top-cut spillage. With reference to
face as the drum rotates. It can be shown4 that Fig. 1 one can write

vc = hwpDrtanx (6) V¬lbc = V¬e + V¬ stc =


T
where hw is rotational speed of the drum, rev/s, and x is wrap S lf hcTvsh + êé (D w - Dr ) + hcwg úùvsh (14)
angle of the drum vanes. ë2 û
× ×
Remark (1) If Ve is greater than Vcmax + material left behind Given the loading rates on to the conveyor it is then possi-
the cut, the cutting drum will clog. Note that the material left ble to calculate the cross-sectional area of the material on the
×
behind the cut is relatively small, so a justifiable approxima- AFC. It is a simple matter to show that for a loading rate of Vl
tion is to ignore this. the cross-sectional area of mineral on the AFC has to be
A94
V¬l Note that the area under the top lip of the pan is not included
Acs = (15) since there is little coal there. Consequently, the pan sidewall
vch ± vsh
can also be ignored without significant loss of accuracy. Area
B is given by
where vch is the velocity of the AFC chain.
1
AB = ha (18)
Remark (5) Note that the ± operator in equation 15 results 2
from the dependency of the cross-section on the direction of
shearer travel. If the shearer is travelling towards the tailgate where h = 1/2atan a and a is angle of repose of the coal.
(i.e. in the opposite direction to the chain movement), the Therefore, by using equation 1 with q = 0, the expression
velocity component is vch + vsh. Similarly, if movement is for the total friction due to coal bearing down on the top pan
towards the maingate, the velocity component is vch – vsh. It is
is assumed that |vch|>|vsh|.
× 1
Given that Vl varies from the top to the bottom cut, and Ftt = m cs aæç d + a tan a ö÷ l m d m g (19)
the cross-sectional area on the AFC is a function of the direc- è 4 ø
tion of movement, it is not clear which cut would result in the
largest cross-section of mineral on the AFC. On the assump- where µcs is the friction coefficient of coal on steel.
tion that the maximum Acs has been determined the
maximum mass of mineral on the AFC is (2) Cross-sectional area of regions A and B < Acs £
cross-sectional area of regions A + B + C + D + En
Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 13:01 16 March 2016

Mcmax = Acsmaxlmdm (16) From Fig. 2 it can be seen that for coal depths greater than hl
a friction force will be developed between the moving coal on
where lm is length and dm is average density of the mineral on the top pan and the coal side bunkers. These bunkers consist
the AFC (which depends on the mixture of stone and coal). of immobile compacted coal. By taking components of the
Determination of the maximum cross-section of mineral on weight force vector for regions C and D the expression
the AFC for a given shearer design and AFC speed has been
described elsewhere.4 Fsw = µccMsm g cos a (20)

AFC mineral friction forces is derived for the sidewall friction force where µcc is coeffi-
cient of friction of coal on coal and Msm is mass of coal in
The most important parameter in determination of the power region C or D. It should be noted that this expression requires
requirements for the AFC is the combined friction of the the assumption that the internal angle of repose is approxi-
coal. This friction has a number of components depending on mately 90° and consequently only the mineral in region C or
the cross-sectional area of the mineral on the AFC. In addi- D contributes to Msm. This condition normally occurs in a
tion there is a carry-back loading caused by coal that is pulled compacted pile.
into the return chain races under the AFC (it will be assumed It can also be seen that the mass of mineral relevant to side
that the AFC has enclosed bottom pans). bunker friction is
With reference to Fig. 2 the top pan loading can be divided
into three cases according to the cross-sectional area of coal Msm = Asmlmdm (21)
on the AFC. It is assumed here that the maximum cross-
sectional area of mineral on the AFC, Acsmax, has been where
determined for the shearer design.
1 2
Asm = Acs - AABE = Acs - a tan a - ax - ad (22)
4

This expression can also be written as


1 2 1
Asm = AC + AD = x (23)
2 tan a

Use of equation 23 in equation 22 results in

3 2
Asm = Acs + a tan a - ad
4
1
1
-aæç a 2 tan 2 a + 2( Acs - ad ) tan a ö÷
2

(24)
è2 ø

which can be substituted into equation 21 to give Msm,


Fig. 2 Coal profiles on AFC which, in turn, can be substituted into equation 20 to give

(1) Acs £ Cross-sectional area of regions A and B 3


Fsw = m cc êé Acs + a2 tan a
In this case there is no contact between the moving coal and ë 4
the side bunkers. Area A is given by 1
1 ù
- aæç a2 tan 2 a + 2 Acs tan aö÷ - ad ú lm d m g cos a
2

AA = ad (17) è2 ø ú
û
where a is the opening width of the pan and d is its depth. (25)
A95
In addition to the extra side bunker friction there is extra
friction on the pan due to the increase in the mass of coal
vertically above the pan surface. Again, by assuming that the
angle of internal friction is approximately 90° this extra mass
can be approximated by calculating the mass of the mineral in
regions A, B, E1, E2 and E3. Clearly

Att = Acs – Asm (26)

therefore

Ftt = m cs gM tt = m cs Att lm d m g
1
1
[
= m cs glm d m ad + aæç a 2 tan a + 2 ( Acs - ad ) tan aö÷
2

è2 ø
3 2
- a tan a úù (27)
4 û
Fig. 3 Derivation of tunnelling forces
(3) Cross-sectional area of regions A–E < Acs
Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 13:01 16 March 2016

Three extra frictional forces come into play in the third case:
c 2 tan 2 f
extra side bunker friction (calculated in a manner similar to ACD = (34)
that in the previous case); extra friction on the top pan due to tan f + tan a
the increased weight; and a tunnelling force caused by regions
B, C, D and E tunnelling through the coal resting on top in
k1
regions H and J (overload condition).
The force due to regions H and J arises mainly through
AH ’ = AJ ’ =
2
( Acs - AABCDE ) tan a
shearing action and is given by 2

k1( Acs - AABCDE ) tan a - ck1 tan 2
3
- fúù
2 êë û
(35)
Ftm = sw tan f (28)
where k1 = 1/(tan f + tan a).
where Ftm is resultant tunneling force, sw is force due to Substitution of equations 34 and 35 into equation 33 and
weight acting normal to the moving coal and f is effective of the resulting expression into equation 20 gives the new
angle of internal friction, i.e expression for sidewall friction. It should be noted that the
effective area AABCDE is different under the overload condi-
Ftm = Wtm cos f tan f = Wtm sin f (29) tion owing to the difference between f and a. It can be shown
that4
where Wtm is weight of coal in regions H and J and is given
1
(a + 2c ) tan f
2
by AABCDE = ad +
4
Wtm = gAtmlmdm (30) - k1c 2 tan f tan a (36)

where Atm is cross-sectional area of mineral in regions H and Finally, one must also account for the extra mass bearing
J. down on the top pan due to regions H’’ and J’’:
Clearly, from Fig. 2

Atm = Acs – AABCDE (31)


AH ’’ J ’’ =
1
k1
[( Acs - AABCDE ) tan a - c tan f tan f ]
By substituting for AABCDE in equation 31 and then substi- (37)
tuting for Wtm in equation 29 the following equation can be This area adds to equation 26 to form the augmented mass
obtained for the sidewall friction: on the top pan. The new value of Ftt in equation 25 can
therefore be calculated.
ì 1
Ftm = í Acs - êéad + (( a + 2 c )2
î ë 4 Carry-back loading

]}
Carry-back is the term used to describe the effect of coal that
-2 c )2 tan f lm d m g sin f (32) does not drop off the AFC at the discharge end and is drawn
into the bottom pan. It has been shown experimentally that
the amount of carry-back is related to the amount of coal
For the extra side bunker friction (Fig. 3) this means that the being discharged. The results of a study undertaken by the
term Msm calculated in equation 21 has to be augmented British National Coal Board5 appear in Table 1.
thus:
Table 1 Chain carry-back
Msm = [ACD + AH’ + AJ’]lmdm (33)
Chain type Carry-back
Note that a simplified geometry has to be assumed to make
the calculation of AH ’ and AJ ’ tractable. Single inboard 1.04–4.97%
After considerable manipulation equations 34 and 35 can Twin inboard 4.4–7.2%
be derived: Single outboard 1.5–2.1%

A96
Design improvements have been made in an attempt to
minimize the carry-back problem6, but it still has a significant
effect on the friction and inertia of the AFC. To account for it
the mass of coal on the top pan should be increased by the
percentage carry-back.

AFC chain friction

The other major component of friction in the AFC is the


AFC chain itself. This friction arises from three main factors:
the weight of the chain on the top and bottom pan chain
guides; extra friction of the chain on the pans due to horizon-
tal ‘snaking’ and vertical undulation of the AFC; and extra
friction around the drive end guides. Fig. 4 Vertical bend tension

Chain mass dT = µssR (44)


The mass of the chains can be determined from the manufac-
turer’s specifications and their length: Since T, dT and dq must be in equilibrium, they form a tri-
angle of forces. If dq and dT are small
Mtc = mch ltc (38)
Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 13:01 16 March 2016

R = Tdq (45)
Mbc = mchlbc (39)
By substitution of equation 45 into equation 44, manipulat-
where Mtc and Mbc are mass of the top and bottom chains, ing and integrating over the total contact radius, equation 46
respectively, mch is mass per unit length of the chain and ltc can be obtained for the tensions:
and lbc are the respective lengths of the top and bottom
chains. T1 = T2e m ss q (46)
The length of the chain is equal to the length of the con-
veyor along the AFC plus the length of chain pulled around where µss is the coefficient of friction of steel on steel. By use
the two drive sprockets. Therefore, the length is of the normal work relationship equations 47 and 48 can be
obtained for the tension and power change around the
2
lc = lafc + prsp (40) angularity:

where lc = ltc = lbc, lafc is length of the conveyor between the


drive sprockets and rsp is effective radius of the drive sproc-
(
dP = e m ss q - 1 P2) (47)

kets, given by

1
(
dT = e m ss q - 1 T2) (48)
rsp = Rs + d ch
2 (41) where T2 and P2 are the tension and power, respectively, on
the lower-tension side of the angularity.
where Rs is drive sprocket barrel radius and dch is chain link A deflection factor, which is the angularity factor that
diameter. increases the tension and power, can be defined as
There are two aspects to the effects of the chain mass on m ss q
the power requirements: the direct effect of the weight on the Dfd = e (49)
chain races; and the inertia of the chain, which increases the
power required to accelerate the AFC at a certain rate. Horizontal snaking
Clearly The horizontal snake that occurs in the AFC is a conse-
quence of the bend that is introduced when the roof supports
Mtc = Mbc = mchlafc (42) ram the AFC forward behind the shearer after the bottom cut
of the face. Consider the situation in Fig. 5. If the tension
This expression can be substituted into equation 1 to give the increase along the AFC without snaking is linear, the incre-
chain friction force. For the inertia the total length of the mental increase in tension for dq around the snake is
chain, including the chain sprocket, must be included:
dT = µssR + kdx (50)
2
é 1 ù
M tc = M bc = mch ê lafc + æç Rs + d ch ö÷ ú
(43) where dx is the incremental linear distance along the chain
ê è 2 ø ú
ë û that corresponds to the angle dq and k = Tmax/lafc, where Tmax
is the maximum tension in the chain at the maingate with no
Drive end angularity horizontal snaking. By using the fact that dx equals rdq, where
The AFC chains are usually pulled around a tight bend at the r is the radius of the bend, and equation 45 one can write
drive ends. The chains rub across a steel surface around these
bends, resulting in friction. Under fully loaded conditions the dT = (µss + kr)dq (51)
tension in the chain at the discharge end of the AFC will be
very high, and the consequent friction force around the angu- which can be written as the differential equation
larity will be significant.
Consider an incremental angle of dq around the bend
(Fig. 4). The friction depends on the normal reaction force, dT (52)
- m ssT = kr
R. Therefore dq
A97
K2 = µssmchlshearg

K3 = µssmchge µssq

K4 = µssmchg + Fpm

K5 =(lafc – lshear – rq)(µssmchg + Fpm)

and r is radius of the snake.


From equation 54 it can be seen that for reasonable
loading K3 – K4 will be negative, meaning that the tension at
point D will fall as lsh increases. Therefore, maximum tension
will occur if lsh is equal to 0.
Similarly, for the bottom pan one can obtain the
expression

Fig. 5 Horizontal AFC snake B


FTG = K 6 + K 7 + ( K 8 - K 9 ) lsh + K 10 (55)

where
Solution of equation 52 with the appropriate boundary condi-
bAcsd m ö æ lc2 ö
[ ]
Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 13:01 16 March 2016

é1 æ ù
tions gives K 6 = ê ç mch + ÷ç + d a ÷ e m ss q - 1 ú g
êë 4 è m ss ø è d a ø úû

T (q) = (
kr m ss q
e )
- 1 + T i e m ss q (53)
m ss
( )
K 7 = g lafc - r q ( m csbAcsd m + m ssmch ) e m ss q

where Ti is value of the tension on the low-tension side of the


bend. K 8 = m ssmch g
A question that naturally arises from this analysis is what
the worst position is for the horizontal snake. An initial
K 9 = g( m cs bAcsd m + m ssmch ) e ss
m q
response might be that it would be worst at the maingate.
However, when the snake is near the maingate the AFC is
usually almost unloaded (assuming that the top cut is made
when the shearer moves away from the maingate and the ( m q
K 10 = FDT - DT e ss )
AFC is straight on this run) and the tension will, therefore, be
low. At shearer positions between the maingate and the tail- where DT is step change in tension around the maingate
gate the tension will vary on account of the variation in the sprocket, b is carry-back factor and mcs is coal-to-steel friction
active length of the AFC. The effect of the position on the coefficient. If the offset tension represented by K10 is ignored,
snake in the return or bottom pan path of the chain must also the slope of FTG B is negative with respect to the l variable.
sh
be considered. Therefore, as in the previous case, the maximum tension is
It will be assumed that (i) the coal loaded on to the AFC achieved if lsh equals 0.
has a uniform profile and the friction tension per metre due One of the initial assumptions in the development of the
to coal is Fpm; (ii) the coal loaded on to the AFC is the maxi- expressions above was that the tension in the top chain at the
mum normal coal load; (iii) the cutting pattern is such that tailgate was zero. This, together with the assumption that the
the horizontal snake occurs on the return from the tailgate to tailgate and maingate motors share the load evenly, implies
the maingate (see Fig. 6); (iv) the tension appearing in the that
top AFC chain at the tailgate is zero, i.e. the AFC is operating
B
under rated conditions; and (v) the maingate and tailgate FTG = DT (56)
motors share the load evenly.
After considerable manipulation the expression If this is used in equation 55, rearrangement yields the
expression
FDT = K 1 + K 2 + ( K 3 - K 4 ) lsh + K 5 (54)

can be derived for the top pan where


DT = æç
1 ö
[
÷ K 6 + K 7 + ( K 8 - K 9 ) lsh + FD e
è 1 + e m ss q ø
T m ss q
]
K1 =
gmch æ l c2
ç
4 è da
ö
[
+ d a ÷ e m ss q - 1
ø
] (57)
for the tension change around each sprocket. Clearly, equa-
tion 57 is a linear function of lsh and has a negative slope.
This function, therefore, will have a maximum value when lsh
is zero. The overall conclusion is that the worst-case loading
condition with respect to the position of the horizontal snake
is when the snake is at the tailgate.

Vertical floor roll


Often the floor on which the AFC rests is not flat, but undu-
lates across the face. Extra power is required to pull the chain
around the bends. Almost always these bends are not sharp
Fig. 6 AFC showing horizontal snake and the extra power required is small compared with the
A98
extra required on account of the drive end angularity. The to the load, Im is moment of inertia of the motor and Ifm is
expressions are detailed elsewhere.4 moment of inertia of the driving half (motor side) of the fluid
coupling.
Chain pretension The second period of acceleration involves not only these
To prevent chain slack from developing at the tailgate the inertias but also the effective inertia of the items on the
chain assembly of an AFC is pretensioned to the full-load sprocket side of the fluid coupling. The moment of inertia of
tension. This means that under light load or zero load condi- the fluid coupling, Ifl, and the gearbox, Igb (usually referred to
tions significant power losses are caused by the angularities. the driven end), can be obtained from the manufacturer’s
However, pretension does not affect the full-load power data sheets. The moment of inertia of the sprocket shaft can
requirements since the chain under this condition will auto- be estimated by modelling it as a solid circular cylinder and
matically have an average tension equal to the pretension.4 then applying standard physics formulae 2 to give

Drive train efficiency Isp = 0.5MspRs2 (61)

Obviously, the power requirements are affected by the effi- where Msp is mass of the sprocket assembly, kg, and Rs is the
ciency of the power train. Losses occur in the fluid coupling, main sprocket shaft radius. This needs to be referred to the
gearbox and sprocket and chain subassemblies. motor side of the gearbox. The standard expression for refer-
The fluid coupling is commonly used to couple the motor ring inertias is
to the gearbox. Although the output torque of the fluid cou-
pling is always equal to the input torque (in its normal 1
I L’ = IL
Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 13:01 16 March 2016

operating speed range), the output power is less than the G2 (62)
input power because of a difference between the input and
output shaft speeds. The power transmitted is proportional to where IL’ is the referred inertia, G is gearbox ratio, equal to
the percentage slip and it is easy to show that the efficiency of wdrive /wload; and IL is the non-referred inertia. If the gearbox
the fluid coupling is given by and fluid coupling are not 100% efficient, this should be
modified as follows:
hfc = 1 – s (58)
1
I L’ = IL (63)
where s = (win – wout)/win and win and wout are gearbox input hfc hgbG 2
and output shaft angular velocities, respectively. The normal
range for s is 2–3.5% and the efficiencies are, thus, typically The inertia of the transmission system therefore becomes
96.5–98.0%.7
Gearbox efficiency, hgb, can be estimated by considering 0.5Msp Rs2
the efficiencies of the individual gear assemblies. Such a IT = I fl + I gb + (64)
detailed analysis can normally be avoided, however, as the hfc hgbG 2
overall efficiency is usually available from the manufacturer.
Typical values for an AFC gearbox are 90.0–96.5%.8 The other part of the total system inertia is the actual load
The efficiency of the sprocket–chain assembly, hsp, is very on the AFC itself. The tension force on the AFC chain can be
difficult to evaluate from first principles because of the represented as an equivalent torque on the drive sprocket. It
number of factors involved. Experiments have found that the is simple to show that the equivalent sprocket inertia is
assembly efficiencies range from 90 to 100%, depending on
2
the chain tension; some manufacturers specify values as low I L = ML rsp (65)
as 85%.
The overall efficiency for the drive system is given by where ML is mass of the linear load, kg (this includes the coal
load and the chain load). Referred to the driven side and with
hdrive = hfchgbhsp (59) the efficiency of the gearbox included the load has an effective
inertia of
and its value is found to range from 74 to 90% when the 2
ML rsp
values for the component efficiencies are substituted. I L’ = (66)
hdriveG 2
Dynamic modelling
where rsp is as defined in equation 41.
An important operational requirement is that an AFC accel- Given these inertias the dynamic model
erate to full speed within a specified time. If acceleration is
.
slow, overheating of the motor and the coupling can result. Iw+ fw = Te + TL (67)
To accelerate the AFC extra torque above the steady-state
torque is required. The acceleration time can be broken into can be written, where Te is motor electromagnetic torque, TL
two distinct periods if fluid couplings are used: the time taken is fixed load torque and f is a viscous friction term. The f term
by the motor to accelerate to a speed at which the fluid cou- can normally be ignored since the TL term would tend to
pling starts to transmit torque to the load; and the time taken dominate. The TL term represents the friction loading from
to accelerate the load to the final speed. the coal and would normally have a negative value. The I
The first period involves accelerating the moment of inertia term in equation 67 has two different values—one before the
of the motor itself and the driving half of the coupler. The fluid coupling transmits torque to the load and the other
inertia is when it does:

ID = Im + Ifm (60)
ì ID for 0 £ t < Ttrans
I =í ’
(68)
where ID is system moment of inertia prior to torque transfer î I D + I T + I L for T trans £ t
A99
where Ttrans is the time when the fluid coupling transmits (4) For the model to give high accuracy the friction coeffi-
torque. cient parameters must be measured for a particular face.

Experimental results Sensitivity analysis


To ascertain the effect of the accuracy of the model para-
To test the validity of the models power levels were measured meters a sensitivity analysis was carried out. The results,
at Wyee State coal mine at Doyalson, New South Wales, and shown in Table 3, were obtained by holding all the para-
at Newstan colliery at Fassifern, New South Wales. Each meters except the one being tested at the mid-value of their
AFC was approximately 200 m long and was fitted with range and then computing the power and time to accelerate
30-mm twin centre chain assemblies and with a closed bot- the load with the extremes of the test parameter. The time
tom pan and end discharge. A number of measurements were and power ratios represent the ratios of the maximum power
taken when the AFC was completely empty and when it was or time to the minimum power or time for each test. The
fully loaded with coal with the shearer cutting towards the minimum and maximum value combinations of the parame-
tailgate. When the tests were carried out the AFC was not ters are also shown. As can be seen from Table 3, the output
overloaded (the colliery authorities would not sanction the power is most sensitive to the coal-on-steel friction and the
application of this test condition) and the coal-on-coal fric- drive end deflection factor.

Table 2 Field verification results


Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 13:01 16 March 2016

Power Measure Measurement, Model prediction British Coal model


loading type kW kW Error kW Error

Face 1 Max kW 149 152 +2% 104 –30%


No load Min kW 137 135 –1% 104 –24%
Face 2 Max kW 157 152 –3% 104 –34%
No load Min kW 136 135 –1% 104 –24%
Face 1 Max kW 617 659 +7% 698 +13%
Full load Min kW 571 551 –4% 698 +22%
Face 2 Max kW 563 659 +17% 698 +24%
Full load Min kW 542 551 +2% 698 +29%

Table 3 Sensitivity analysis

Parameters Minimum and Acceleration Motor running Time Power


varied maximum values time, s load, kW ratio ratio

µss 0.24 1.67 652


0.33 1.72 664 1.03 1.02
µcs 0.40 1.39 579
0.5 2.19 740 1.58 1.28
hgb 0.97 1.60 638
0.90 1.87 687 1.17 1.08
hsp 0.88 1.62 643
0.85 1.74 666 1.07 1.04
Dfd 1.10 1.57 627
1.21 1.88 694 1.20 1.11
Minimum value combination 1.19 508
Maximum value combination 3.63 852 3.05 1.68

tion associated with the side bunkers did not, therefore, have Conclusions
a significant effect on the results. Consequently, its effects
were omitted from the model. A comprehensive model of the frictions in an armoured face
The maximum and minimum values of power measured conveyor in a longwall mine has been developed from first
are shown in Table 2 together the maximum and minimum principles. The model has been shown to predict accurately
values of the power computed by the model with the normal the power requirements for existing 200-m faces. To obtain
parameter variations associated with the friction coefficients high accuracy it is essential that tests be carried out to deter-
and drive train efficiencies. The following observations may mine accurately the coal-on-steel friction coefficient for each
be made. face.
(1) The errors when the British Coal model is applied are sig- The model provides a solid basis for design of the power
nificantly larger than those with the models developed here. requirements for the longer faces that will become necessary
(2) The predictions of no-load power from the new model are in the future. The equations are also an aid to the mechanical
very accurate, which is largely because the variation due to design of the AFC and its major components.
the coal properties has been eliminated.
(3) The Face 2 full-load prediction was in error by +17%. Acknowledgement
This is the worst error and is attributed to wetness of the face,
as a consequence of which the coal-on-steel friction would The authors acknowledge Professor A. W. Roberts of the
have been at the low end of the range, whereas the +17% Institute of Bulk Solids Handling Research, University of
result was calculated for the largest value of this friction. Newcastle, Australia, for his help in coal heap modelling.
A100
References
1. Morley L. A., Kohler J. L. and Smolnikar H. M. A model for
predicting motor load for an armoured face-conveyor drive. IEEE
Trans. Industry Application, 24, no. 4, 1988.
2. Resnick R. and Halliday D. Physics, Parts I and II (New York:
Wiley, 1966).
3. Horst H. D. Optimum design of shearer drums. Paper presented
at Miskoll ’85, West Germany, 1985.
4. Broadfoot A. R. and Betz R. E. Mechanical modelling of the
armoured face conveyor of a longwall mining system. Technical
report EE9528, Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, University of Newcastle, Australia. Downloadable from
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/users/staff/reb
5. Mining Research and Development Establishment. The assess-
ment of heavy duty conveyors in relation to modern mining systems
(Burton-on-Trent: National Coal Board, 1980).
6. Clapham P. Coal face designs. Mining Technology, 70, no. 811,
May, 1988.
7. Fluidrive fluid couplings. Catalogue reference A-2, Fluidrive
Engineering Co. Ltd.
8. Rexnard Inc. Planetgear speed reducer. Catalogue, Rexnard
Inc., Brookfield, U.S.A., 1981, 4 p.

Authors
Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 13:01 16 March 2016

A. R. Broadfoot is a graduate in electrical engineering of the


University of Newcastle, Australia, which awarded him the degree of
Ph.D. in 1997. From 1976 to 1991 he worked for Elcom Collieries
Pty, Ltd., in New South Wales, in the later years as group project
engineer and mine electrical engineer. In 1991 he joined Ampcontrol
Pty, Ltd., Newcastle, New South Wales, and is currently general
manager of the company’s mining and mineral processing/refining
business unit.

R. E. Betz graduated from the University of Newcastle, Australia, in


1979 and gained his Ph.D. there in 1984. He is currently a senior
lecturer in the University’s Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering.

Address: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,


University of Newcastle, NSW 2308, Australia.
e-mail reb@ee.newcastle.edu.au

A101

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen