Stiffness analysis of rotary elastic joint for a flexible bucket wheel reclaimer via theoretical, numerical and experimental methods

Abstract

Aiming at reducing remaining materials and improving efficiency during bulk materials clearance, a Flexible Bucket Wheel Reclaimer (FBWR) was designed using a series of compact rotary elastic joints to enable bucket adjustment. The dynamics of the FBWR was analysed to calculate the contact force of the buckets. The stiffness of the elastic joints was investigated theoretically, numerically and experimentally for both frictionless and frictional conditions. From comparisons, good agreements were achieved by the calculations, simulations and tests. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis was conducted for the rotary elastic joints, including the stiffness, the rotation, the friction force and the stiffness ratio, from which the trends of these parameters in relationship to the Coefficient of Friction (CoF) and the Elastic Modulus (EM) were obtained. It is believed that the findings in this study can assist in the design of FBWRs and facilitate their applications in practice.