Investigation of Structural Stress Monitoring System on Excavator under Impact Loads

Abstract

Displacement and pressure sensors were used to measure the displacement and pressure variations of the hydraulic cylinders in an excavator under impact loads. Taking the measured cylinder displacement as a driven boundary condition, the kinematics simulation is completed in the LMS Virtual Lab. Taking the measured cylinder thrust and the simulation results of the kinematics as driven boundary conditions, the dynamic simulation of the excavator is carried out. The CAE dynamic stress analysis of the boom and arm of the excavator is performed using ABAQUS inertial release approach under the loads on the sub-structure obtained from the above multi-body dynamic simulation and the measured data, it provides a reference for the material selection of each part of excavator boom. The good agreement between the analytical and testing results demonstrates that the present method is accurate, efficient, cost effective, and able to monitor the stress status and access the health of an excavator instead of using field testing techniques.