Research On Design And Calculation Theory Of Belt Conveyor With Horizontal Curves

As the most important bulk solids handling equipment, belt conveyor is popularly used in electric power, metallurgy, mining, coal, port and other fields. On account of transportation task, topography, geology and other conditions, not all transmission lines are straight and turning belt conveyor is designed. During runtime, the belt usually can’t stay at the centered position, but with a certain offset. Too large offset will make the material scatter and the belt wear and tear. Calculating the offset can verify whether the design is reasonable or not and has some engineering significance.This paper is study on the 5-pulley idlers belt conveyor with horizontal curve, and research on the calculation of material and belt’s offset at the curve section. Get the computing method of gravity distribution coefficient by analyzing the cross section of the material. Analyze the force of the material and belt at the curve section and get the force balance equation which contains the offset, then get the computing method of the offset. Through changing the parameters of idlers,5-pulley idlers can be converted into 4-pulley idlers,3-pulley idlers and 2-pulley idlers. The calculation theory of this paper also applies to the turning belt conveyor with less than 5-pulley idlers.Through analyzing the example of horizontal curve, get the influence of various parameters on offsets. Through analyzing the example of curve with constant grade and comparing with the example of horizontal curve, it is found that parameters except the grade have the same influence on the offset of horizontal curve and constant grade curve. When parameters except the grade of curve with constant grade are the same as horizontal curve’s, the maximum difference value of offsets between the curve with constant grade and horizontal curve does not exceed 10% which is very small, and the horizontal curve has larger offsets than curve with constant grade. So it is possible to estimate the offset of curve with constant grade through calculating the offset of horizontal curve which can simplify the calculation.Developing the turning belt conveyor design and calculation software by MATLAB and Visual Basic mixed programming to calculate offsets of material and belt. The result can be output in the form of a word document which is convenient for designers to post-process the data. Design and calculation software can free the designer form tedious calculation, decrease the workload, improve work efficiency and shorten the design period.