- Title
- A Stochastic Framework for Predicting Transfer Chute Blockages Based on Materials Properties
- Creator
- Freire, Priscilla G.; Williams, Kenneth C.; O'Shea, Jayne; Orozovic, Ognjen
- Relation
- 13th International Conference on Bulk Materials Storage, Handling & Transportation (ICBMH 2019). Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Bulk Materials Storage, Handling & Transportation (ICBMH 2019) (Gold Coast, Queensland 09-11 July, 2019)
- Relation
- https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au
- Publisher
- Engineers Australia
- Resource Type
- conference paper
- Date
- 2019
- Description
- Transfer chutes are of utmost importance in mining operations. However, they often consist of one of the most relevant sources of bottlenecks and production delays when not designed appropriately for the materials handled. Issues such as material build-up, belt mistracking and high wear are among the most costly problems. Flow properties intrinsic to the material and those related to the interface between the bulk solid and the wall material can be used to calculate the velocity profile and determine design parameters. These properties are known to vary with moisture content, and a change in moisture may affect flow considerably in materials handling systems. This paper investigates the influence of material properties under varying moistures, specifically bulk density and wall friction, in the propensity to build-up and blockage using the continuum mechanics approach for transfer chute design. Laboratory test results of five bulk material samples representative of one commodity at a total of 20 moisture contents were used for determining the bulk density ρ and wall friction angle with one liner (mild steel), from which the coefficient of friction was determined. Monte-Carlo simulation was then used to generate random values for moisture content off two distributions corresponding to two bulk materials, and the corresponding ρ and µ from the test results were then used to feed the continuum mechanics motion equations for a given transfer chute. The geometry parameters resulting from the velocity profiles obtained with the continuum mechanics were verified against two design criteria to calculate the probability of failure by material build-up. The aim is to assess how a change in moisture content and chute geometry (consequently affecting material behaviour) affects the transfer chute operation, and a theoretical correlation between properties and the probability of build-up is proposed.
- Subject
- transfer chutes; mining; blockages; moisture content
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1447163
- Identifier
- uon:43071
- Identifier
- ISBN:9781925627299
- Language
- eng
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