The Development of a Diggability Index for Bucket
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF A DIGGABILITY INDEX FOR BUCKET WHEEL EXCAVATORS A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Science by A. INAL The University of New South Wales School of Mining Engineering Faculty of Applied Science December, 1984 SR.P.T10 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of a university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgement is made in the text of the thesis. (Signed) I hereby certify that the work containel in this thesis has not teen submittal for a higher legrae to any r)g^nni^ensit/ or xn^titi -ion. Sign ature• UNIVERSITY OF N.S.W. -3 DEC 1985 LIBRARY ABSTRACT Bucket wheel excavators are widely used in open-cut mining operations. While in the past they have excavated unconsolidated material and only the softest rock and mineral deposits, their role is currently being extended to include harder overburden, which may or may not be pre-blasted. Machine manufacturers have developed a simple wedge penetration test to assess ground conditions, to provide input data for machine specification and to predict excavation rates. This thesis discusses the role of bucket wheel excavators and describes seme typical designs and methods of operation. Thereafter, the design of a portable but rigid wedge test apparatus is discussed. The experimental work presented in this thesis relates to the use of the wedge test apparatus to determine the diggability index for overburden material recovered frcm the bucket wheel excavator site at Goonyella Mine in Central Queensland. Tests, involving the use of a linear rock cutting rig were also undertaken, as was sane additional work involving samples cast fran sand/cement mortars. In conclusion the thesis correlates wedge test results with standard physical and mechanical properties of the samples and discusses whether the wedge test provides an adequate measure of diggability. ii CONTENTS Page No. ABSTRACT i CONTENTS ii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vi LIST OF TABLES X LIST OF MAPS xii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xiii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 2 ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE BUCKET WHEEL EXCAVATOR 5 2.1 Introduction 5 2.2 Wheel Excavators Operation Methods 9 2.2.1 Terrace and Dropping Cuts 12 2.2.2 Terrace Cut 12 2.2.3 Dropping Cut 12 2.3 Systems of Bucket Wheel Operation 16 2.3.1 Full Block Working 16 2.3.2 Face or Front Working 16 2.3.3 Face Block or Side Block Working 17 2.4 Bucket Wheel Excavators Design 17 2.5 The Bucket Wheel 19 2.5.1 Cell Type Wheel 20 2.5.2 Cell-less Type Wheel 20 2.5.3, Semi-cell Type 24 2.5.4 Bucket and Bucket Knives 24 2.5.5 Pre-Cutters 2 7 2.5.6 Ripping Teeth 27 iii Page No. 2.6 Slewing Mechanism 30 2.6.1 Slewing Gear 32 2.6.2 Turntables 32 2.6.3 Ball Races 34 2.7 Steel Structure 34 2.7.1 Bucket Wheel Excavator Design Based on Spare Frames 34 2.7.2 Bucket Wheel Excavator Structures 37 2.8 Crawlers 40 2.9 Lubrication 42 2.9.1 Lubricating Techniques 42 2.10 Material Transport 44 2.10.1 Conveyor Belts on Bucket Wheel Excavators 44 2.10.2 Analysis of Belt Conveyor Requirements at Transfer Points 46 2.10.3 Conveying Path in Bucket Wheel Excavator 48 2.10.4 Truck Loading 51 2.10.5 Train Loading 51 2.11 Electrical Equipment 53 CHAPTER 3 AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCE 57 3.1 Brown Coal 57 3.1.1 Development of Mining Equipment for Latrobe Valley 57 3.2 Black Coal 61 3.2.1 The Goonyella Mine 61 3.2.2 Mine Operation 63 iv Page No. 3.2.3 Nature of the Goonyella Overburden 65 3.2.4 Bucket Wheel Excavator Selection 66 CHAPTER 4 EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAMME AND TEST MATERIALS 68 4.1 Physical and Mechanical Properties of the Test Material 71 4.2 Test Samples 72 4.2.1 Test Samples from Goonyella 4.2.2 Artificial Rock Samples 73 4.3 Compressive Strength 74 4.4 Tensile Strength 78 4.5 Bulk Density 81 4.6 Shore Hardness 83 4.7 Cone Indenter Test 87 CHAPTER 5 DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEDGE TEST 91 5.1 Determination of Digging Resistance 91 5.2 Ground Diggability Determination 94 5.3 Detailed Design of UNSW Wedge Test Apparatus 95 5.3.1 Design Parameters 97 5.3.2 Manufacture of the Apparatus 99 5.4 Wedge Test Results 99 5.5 Effect of Specimen Size and Shape on Test Results 111 V Page No. CHAPTER 6 ROCK CUTTING TESTS 122 6.1 Cutting Results 127 6.2 Disscussion of Cutting Programme Results 140 6.3 Comparison of the Cuttability of the Three Rock Types 143 CHAPTER 7 CONCLUSIONS 146 REFERENCES 157 BIBLIOGRAPHY 159 vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page No. FIGURE NO. 2.1 Details of an 1881 Patent for a B.W.E. 6 2.2 First Rail Mounted Bucket Wheel Excavator 7 2.3 Bucket Wheel Excavator at the Cuba Mine, Illinois 8 2.4 The Bucket Wheel Excavator Sch Rs-^—^- - 25 10 2.5 A Large Bucket Wheel Excavator 11 2.6 Alternative Excavation Methods for Bucket Wheel Excavators 11 2.7 .a A Crowd-type B.W.E. Undertaking a Terrace Cut 13 2.7. b Crowdless-type B.W.E. in Terrace Cut 13 2.7 .c A Crowd-type B.W.E. in a Dropping Cut 14 2.7. d A Crowdless-type B.W.E. in a Dropping Cut 14 2.8 Block Working System of Bucket Wheel Excavator 15 2.9 Face Working, Rail Mounted Bucket Wheel Excavator 15 2.10 Face or Side Block Working B.W.E., Used in Conjunction With a Shovel 18 2.11 Cell Type Bucket Wheel 21 2.12 Cell-less Type Bucket Wheel 21 2.13 Bucket Discharge Types 22 2.14 Bucket Discharge Types Photos 23 2.15 Semi-Cell Type Bucket Wheel 25 2.16 Comparison of Bucket Wheel Types for Bucket Filling Process 25 2.17 Cover Plate of the Wheel Body 26 2.18 Chain-back Type Bucket 28 vii FIGURE NO. Page No. 2.19 Pre-cutters (Inter cutters) 29 2.20 Buckets and Bucket Teeth 31 2.21 Position and Shape of Teeth 31 2.22 Turntable on the B.W.E. SchRs--^-- - 35 - 11 33 2.23 Ball Race Section 33 2.24 Control and Lighting Current Slip Rings 35 2.25 Drum Shaped Membrane Structure 38 2.26 B.W.E. Framework in Balanced and Unbalanced Conditions 39 2.27 Various Crawler Designs 41 2.28 Alternative Lubrication Systans 43 2.29 B.W.E. with Shiftable Conveyor Systan 45 2.30 Transfer Point 47 2.31 Possible Transfer Point Configurations 47 2.32 Reduction of Conveyor Path in B.W.E. 49 2.33 Catenery Idler Sets 49 2.34 Typical Bucket Wheel Boon Cross Section 50 2.35 Truck Loading 52 2.36 Train Loading 54 2.37 B.W.E. Cable Reel Car 56 3.1 Coal Resources of Australia 58 3.2 Development of Equipment for Victorian Open-Cut Mines 60 3.3 Intermediate Cutters 62 3.4 Typical Application of a B.W.E. 62 3.5 Detailed Plan of Goonyella Open-Cut 64 viii FIGURE NO. Page No. 3.6 Continuous Pre-Stripping at Goonyella Mine 64 3.7 0 & K 1367 B.W.E. for Goonyella Mine 67 4.1 Plan Showing Location of Boreholes Relative to B.W.E. Zone 70 4.2 Shore Scleroscope 84 4.3 Cone Indenter Test Equipment 88 5.1 General Plan of Wedge Test Apparatus 96 5.2 Detail of Top Plate 100 5.3 Detail of Wedge and Connecting Systems 101 5.4 Detail of Sandbox 102 5.5 Detail of Bottom Plate 103 5.6 General View of Wedge Test Apparatus 104 5.7 Avery Test Machine with Wedge 106 5.8 Ideal Breakage of Sample 112 5.9 Shear Failure in Strong Specimens 113 5.10 Wedge Test Results for Mix 5 117 5.11 Wedge Test Results for Mix 6 118 5.12 Wedge Test Results for Mix 7 119 5.13 Comparison of Cubic and Cylindrical Specimens after Testing 120 6.1 Linear Rock Cutting Rig and Pick Dynamometer 123 6.2 Isometric Drawing of Dynamometer 126 6.3 Chisel Pick 126 6.4 (A) Effect of Depth of Cut on Forces for Block B2 130 6.4 (B) Effect of Depth of Cut on Yield and Specific Energy in Block B2 131 IX FIGURE NO. Page No. 6.5 (A) Effect of Depth of Cut on Forces for Block B3 134 6.5 (B) Effect of Depth of Cut on Yield and Specific Energy in Block B3 135 6.6 (A) Effect of Depth of Cut on Forces for Block B4 138 6.6 (B) Effect of Depth of Cut on Yield and Specific Energy in Block B4 139 6.7 Shape of Excavated Groove 141 6.8 Ccmparison of Mean Cutting Forces in the Three Goonyella Block Samples 144 6.9 Ccmparison of Specific Energies for the Three Goonyella Block Samples 144 7.1 Relationship Between Ccmpressive Strength and Wedge Strength 148 7.2 Relationship Between Tensile Strength and Wedge Strength 148 7.3 Ccmparison of Shore Hardness and Wedge Strength 149 7.4 Ccmparison of Cone Indenter Hardness and Wedge Strength 149 7.5 Relationship Between Cutting Forces and Ccmpressive Strength 151 7.6 Relationship Between Cutting Forces and Cone Indenter Hardness 151 7.7 Overburden Cuttability as a Function of Wedge Strength 152 7.8 Specific Energy of Cutting as a Function of Wedge Strength 152 7.9 Variation of the Correlation Factor f With Actual Material Strength 155 X LIST OF TABLES TABLE NO.