Influence of different cord pitch on the pullout force of steel cord conveyor belt splice

Abstract

The splice is the weakest part of the entire steel cord conveyor belt. And it occurs steel cord twitch fault frequently. If this fault cannot be dealt with timely and accurately, broken belt accidents would be occurred that affecting the safety of production seriously. In this paper, we investigated the different cord pitch pullout of the steel cord conveyor belt splice by using ABAQUS. The finite element model of the ST630 type steel cord conveyor belt was established, same as to the standard of the experimental sample. The pullout force of length 50.0, 70.0, 80.0 and 100.0 mm single steel cord impacted at steel cord conveyor belt splice was numerically computed respectively. The finite element model consists of rubber, steel cord and failure unit. Failure unit is used to simulate the bonding relationship between steel cord and rubber. Mooney-Rivlin hyper-elastic model for rubber was employed in the numerical simulations. Typical results obtained have been validated by experimental result and the relative error between simulation results and experimental results is within 10%. Simulations were also done for cord pitch of 4.0, 4.5, 6.0, 7.0 and 8.0 mm to study its effect on the pullout force of steel cord conveyor belt splice. The variation of cord pitch at normal impact was found to have influence as long as the cord pitch was different. It provides us the numeric value of the pullout force with the different cord pitch, and conducts us selecting the correct steel cord configuration spacing for the steel cord conveyor belt splice, as well for the steel cord conveyor belt. This is an efficient way for avoiding the steel cord twitch fault and the broken belt accident, while ensuring their high reliability and service life.