Full-scale simulation and validation of bucket filling for a mining rope shovel by using a combined rigid FE-DEM granula
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Full-scale simulation and validation of bucket filling for a mining rope shovel by using a combined rigid FE-DEM granular material model Andreas Svanberg1,2
· Simon Larsson2 · Rikard Mäki3 · Pär Jonsén2
Received: 3 July 2020 / Revised: 14 September 2020 / Accepted: 12 October 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Rope shovels and other heavy mining equipment used for loading fragmented rocks to extract minerals from the earth are used in almost every open pit mine. The optimization of the loading process is of enormous value due to the extremely large amount of material turn over. In this work, a full-scale numerical model of the loading process is developed. Granular material of copper ore is modeled in a combination of rigid finite elements for larger particles with complex shapes, and the discrete element method for smaller particles. A multi rigid body dynamic model, discretized with finite elements are used to model the rope shovel. Calibration of the numerical model for the granular material is performed via a new and unique experimental full-scale approach of analyzing waste rock pile angles with a height of approximately 15 m. In situ experimental data acquisition is performed during the loading process for validation of the model. After model validation, the influence of several loading variables such as bucket rake angle, velocity, and position from the pile are investigated and evaluated. When comparing the numerical model results with experimental mass measurement an excellent agreement was observed. Also, drone camera video recordings of the mass flow behavior and the numerical mass flow behavior are in agreement. Small adjustments of dig variables show a significant effect on the average dig force as well as the bucket fill factor. Keywords Rope shovel · Mining · Simulation · DEM · Full scale · Bucket
1 Introduction The loading process of ore and waste rock is a very critical process in the production flow in any open-pit mine. Usually, rope shovels or other mining excavators such as hydraulic mining shovels are used for excavating the material onto haul trucks. The material is then transported to a crusher or waste rock dump site depending on if the material is ore with profitable mineral content or waste rock. A typical mining rope shovel has a bucket volume capacity of around 30–60 m3 and fills a dump truck with a payload of over 300 tons with 3–4 buckets. Normally, a rope shovel fills around 1000–3000 buckets corresponding to 30–70 kton of ore and waste rock daily. Naturally, the bucket of a rope shovel is the part of the machine that is subjected to the immediate
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Andreas Svanberg [email protected]; [email protected]
1
Boliden Minerals AB, Aitik Mine, 98292 Sakajärvi, Sweden
2
Division of Mechanics of Solid Materials, Luleå University of Technology, 97187 Luleå, Sweden
3
Boliden Minerals AB, 93632 Boliden, Sweden
interaction with the granular material. Several factors are of significant importance to ensure that the rope shovel operates efficiently and that the machin
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