Structural Optimization Of Large-scale Stacker Reclaimer Center Column

Stacker-reclaimer has been extensively applied in many industries as bulk material handling machine. Stockyard stacker-reclaimer has advantages of compact structure, high degree of automation, high production efficiency and advanced crafts, it has been widely applied in cement, coal, steel, electricity and other industries. Stockyard stacker-reclaimer has three core components:stacker, reclaimer and center column. Among the core components, center column plays a key role of connecting stacker and reclaimer into a whole equipment. However, there was a center column problem for the product that the structure of it is too heavy, which failed to obtain full usage of its material and cost waste. Therefore, research of structural optimization for stacker-reclaimer center column had a significant value for weight reduction of column and integral performance of stacker-reclaimer.In this thesis, the center column of stacker-reclaimer is taken as research object. It is necessary to study the center column structure optimization under complicated loading conditions according to problems which exist in the center column design. In order to determine the force of the center column, reasonable simplification for the center column and theoretical calculation are necessary. The classic FEA software is used to build a simplified center column model for structural optimization, which is also based on the APDL and parametric theory. For getting dangerous working conditions as the basis for optimization analysis, it is necessary to analyze center column of every working condition in strength, stiffness and stability. And select the center column main size as the design variables, chose the center column strength, stiffness, stability requirement as constraint variables, pick minimum total mass of the center column as the optimization objective. The zero-order optimal method is used for the purpose of size optimization of the model. Moreover, for a suitable shape of stiffener, a topological optimization was applied to the stiffener model to reduce70%of the original volume. The optimized data provided a best center column structure after fine-tuning and validation.This thesis used APDL language to get a more ideal center column structure by programming a FEM APDL for optimization. The optimized data validation proves that, on condition that strength, stiffness and stability are ensured, a suitable shape of stiffener is acquired by reducing the weight of the structure, by optimizing the size of center column cross-section and the position of stiffener. This optimization decreases about23.5%gross weight of the main steel structure of the center column. This research has a fine universality with a simple program for the designers, and it provides reference for further studies about stacker-reclaimer center column.