A dynamic analysis of a conical pick during rock-cutting process based on the smooth finite element method

Abstract

In this paper, the smooth finite element methods (S-FEMs) for accurate and reliable dynamic analysis are proposed to improve the wear resistance of road header picks. Experimentally measured forces and smoothing operations are used to establish a numerical model of conical picks subjected to dynamic forces that changes with time during the rock-cutting process. The S-FEMs are extended for dynamics problems of rock picks, so that tetrahedral elements can be used for model generation. The proposed dynamic analysis procedure has been found with several features, including upper bounds for dynamic problems of the Node-based S-FEM, “ultra-accuracy” in both displacement and energy norms in dynamics solutions of the Edge-based S-FEM. These features are beneficial to practical engineering problems whose exact solutions are difficult to obtain, and hence offer an efficient numerical tool for investigating the effects of actual parameters on the performance of picks subjected to various dynamic forces.