Study of heat generation and dissipation mechanism for an exciter shaft and its impact

Abstract

Compactor is a heavy-duty machinery that uses compaction to reduce the size of waste materials or biomass or compaction of load. A bearing is a machine element that restricts relative motion to only the desired motion, and decreases friction between moving parts. It is an essential component in a compactor and is used for supporting the exciter shaft. Compaction is achieved by vibration of roller drum, which in turn is achieved by means of generated at the exciter shaft with an eccentric mass. During this process of generation of forced excitation, heat is generated at shaft to bearing interface. The current heat generation and dissipation paths for the bearing on the exciter shaft of the compactor were studied and calculated. Suggestions for heat dissipation optimization are provided. Various optimization methods were devised for heat dissipation to improve the wear as well as efficiency of the bearing and further testing is required for implementation of same.