The key working process carried out by roadheaders is rock mining. For this reason, the mathematical modelling of the mining process is underlying the prediction of a dynamic load on the main components of a roadheader, the prediction of power demand for rock cutting with given properties or the prediction of energy consumption of this process. The theoretical and experimental investigations conducted point out -especially in relation to the technical parameters of roadheaders used these days in underground mining and their operating conditions -that the mathematical models of the process employed to date have many limitations, and in many cases the results obtained using such models deviate largely from the reality. This is due to the fact that certain factors strongly influencing cutting process progress have not been considered at the modelling stage, or have been approached in an oversimplified fashion.The article presents a new model of a rock cutting process using conical picks of cutting heads of boom-type roadheaders. An important novelty with respect to the models applied to date is, firstly, that the actual shape of cuts has been modelled with such shape resulting from the geometry of the currently used conical picks, and, secondly, variations in the depth of cuts in the cutting path of individual picks have been considered with such variations resulting from the picks' kinematics during the advancement of transverse cutting heads parallel to the floor surface. The work presents examples of simulation results for mining with a roadheader's transverse head equipped with 80 conical picks and compares them with the outcomes obtained using the existing model. Keywords: roadheader, mining, cutting process modelling, computer simulation Urabianie skał jest zasadniczym procesem roboczym realizowanym przez kombajny górnicze. Modelowanie matematyczne tego procesu stanowi dlatego podstawę predykcji obciążenia dynamicznego głównych podzespołów kombajnu, prognozowania zapotrzebowania mocy do urabiania skał o określonych własnościach oraz jego energochłonności. Prowadzone badania teoretyczne i doświadczalne wskazują, w szczególności w odniesieniu do parametrów technicznych obecnie stosowanych w górnictwie podziemnym kombajnów chodnikowych oraz warunków ich eksploatacji, że wykorzystywane dotychczas
Initial chain tension in armoured face conveyors, in which operating conditions vary constantly, should be adjusted automatically to adapt it to the needs arising. The manufacturers of such conveyors are now offering a possibility of equipping a conveyor with a drive with a telescopic trough enabling stepless change of the scraper chain contour by shifting the drive frame. The work presents the outcomes of computer investigations performed using an own mathematical model of an armoured face conveyor with a main and auxiliary drive equipped with a telescopic trough and an automatic initial chain tension adjustment system with the ASTEN algorithm. The ASTEN algorithm is responding to changes in scraper chain elongation caused by changes to conveyor configuration and also by a varying mined coal load resulting from interworking with a mining machine.
This paper deals with the automation of the rock cutting process with roadheaders used widely in civil engineering for drilling roadways in underground mines and tunnels. Although there has been intensive technical development, roadheaders are still manually controlled. Manual control does not allow optimizing the values of the cutting process parameters, which often results in low mining efficiency, especially in the case of hard rocks, as well as high energy consumption and significant dynamic overloading of the roadheader. As part of theoretical and experimental research, an automatic control system was designed for the boom-type roadheader and an algorithm was developed for the optimal control of the cutting process parameters. Control criteria have been formulated, based on which the current values of the cutting process parameters are worked out using the information on the dynamic load state of the roadheader. The paper presents selected results of numerical tests conducted on roadheader dynamics, which simulated the automatic control system operation of the heading face cutting process of drilled roadway or tunnel. These tests were intended to analyze the behavior of the investigated object during simulated rock cutting in automatic mode. The results confirmed the possibility of a significant reduction in mining energy consumption.
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