Static stress analysis of industrial conveyor pulleys using finite element analysis with experimental verification

Pulleys are the main components of an industrial conveyor system for material handling. The useful life of a pulley depends on its operating stress levels. The stresses in various parts of the pulley are interconnected through weld attachments creating complex geometries. Therefore, an integral analysis is required to properly design a reliable pulley. Classical stress analysis techniques for such geometries can be cumbersome and labor intensive. This analysis method results in lengthy solution time and increased chance for errors. An efficient and accurate method of solving these complex design problems is to use general-purpose finite element analysis (FEA) packages.; Finite element models were developed for a series of conveyor drive pulleys using 8-noded brick elements. Applied loads include tangential uniform face distributions from the slack-side and tight-side belt tensions, bearing reaction forces, and the drive torque. To validate the FEA results, comparisons have been made with experimental and theoretical investigations. The experimental data was obtained using a test fixture consisting of a production conveyor drive pulley and a strain gage measurement system. The stresses for the pulleys were determined and correlated with the FEA models.