Vibration and Noise Analysis and Experimental Study of Rail Conveyor

Sensors (Basel). 2023 May 18;23(10):4867. doi: 10.3390/s23104867.

Abstract

The rail conveyor is a new type of energy-saving system for the long-distance transportation of bulk materials. Operating noise is an urgent problem that the current model faces. It will cause noise pollution and affect the health of workers. In this paper, the factors causing vibration and noise are analyzed by modeling the wheel-rail system and the supporting truss structure. Based on the built test platform, the system vibration of the vertical steering wheel, the track support truss, and the track connection were measured, and the vibration characteristics at different positions were analyzed. Based on the established noise and vibration model, the distribution and occurrence rules of system noise under different operating speeds and fastener stiffness conditions were obtained. The experimental results show that the vibration amplitude of the frame near the head of the conveyor is the largest. The amplitude under the condition of 2 m/s running speed at the same position is 4 times that under the condition of 1 m/s. At different welds of the track, the width and depth of the rail gap have a great influence on the vibration impact, which is mainly due to the impact of the uneven impedance at the track gap, and the greater the running speed, the more obvious the vibration impact. The simulation results show the trend of noise generation, the speed of the trolley, and the stiffness of the track fasteners have a positive effect on the generation of noise in the low-frequency region. The research results of this paper will play an important role in the noise and vibration analysis of rail conveyors and help to optimize the structure design of the track transmission system.

Keywords: field experiments; rail conveyor; spectrum analysis; vibration noise.

Grants and funding

The research is supported by the Open Fund for Key Laboratory of Mining Machinery Engineering in Shandong Province (2022KLMM303); the Natural Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2020KE061); Major Special Project of Science and Technology Innovation in Tai’an City(2022ZDZX010).