| Transfer chute,widely used in ports and mines,is an equipment in bulk material transfer systems and plays a role in diversion and changing-direction.Most transfer systems are composed of bin,feeder,conveyor,chute and other parts.Because of the different heights of process units in a bulk material conveying process,materials have to rely on their own gravity and take a movement from one device to another through a chute.Transfer chute is usually an essential equipment in a transfer system,however,it’s also a weak link in continuous transportation.Congestion,dust,wear,deviation and noise problems have often taken place in production processes,especially when the device is used for conditions with huge transportation volume such as ports and mines.So chute should be reasonable designed in order to improve transfer efficiency and prolong equipment service life as well.Aiming at the transfer process of iron ore in a certain port,simulations were carried out by EDEM software based on discrete element method.Through the simulations,the material motion trajectories were analyzed and the motion states of material under different conditions were compared.Based on the principle of reducing wear and impact and combined with force analysis,the structures of funnel and chute entrance were optimized and the effect of reducing the stress concentration was achieved.Besides,material-receiving belt forces under different transfer chute were analyzed and material movements under different circumstances were compared.Taking chute with constant radius as research object,major correlations were obtained as follows: the relations of set plate angle to material flow velocity and chute force;the relations of chute radius to the force of chute and conveyer belt,material distribution and material fluidity.Taking segmented chute as research object,segmented chute performed better than chute with constant radius in the transfer process,and the relations of segmented chute size to chute force and energy loss were also obtained.Simulating by EDEM software to analyze the transfer process of bulk materials provides a new method in equipment design and remedies the limitation of the design only dealing with structures.Moreover,it also can provide a more reliable basis for structure designs from a material perspective. |
