Structural behaviour of Syncrude's Aurora II crusher

Syncrude uses double roll crushers as its primary crusher in the mining process. The crusher is loaded from 400-tonne dump trucks. Downtime of the crusher causes production losses which are very costly. This research program was designed to gain a better understanding of the structural behaviour of the crusher to allow for improvement in design and the implementation of a structural health monitoring program. A test program was initiated to measure strain data in the hopper, columns, and pontoon and displacements of the columns and pontoon. Event characterization was used to determine specific signatures for different event types. Impact factors were calculated and examined by stress range and location. The numerical model used in design was compared to test results which compared well with the model. The design model was found to accurately predict the global behaviour of the crusher.