Trajectory Control for Vibrating Screen with Magnetorheological Dampers

The article presents a method of vibrating screen trajectory control based on MR (magnetorheological) dampers applied in a screen suspension. A mathematical description of the dynamic screen model was derived, and parameters of this model were estimated based on experimental data from a semi-industrial vibrating screen. The investigated screen included a single mechanical exciter with unbalanced masses, generating a circular vibration trajectory and operating with over-resonant frequency close to 19 Hz. It was experimentally tested in several phases of operation: start-up, nominal operation at a target vibration frequency and shutdown. The implemented screen model was further extended and included several MR dampers oriented horizontally and vertically in the form of Bouc-Wen models. The Bouc-Wen model was identified based on experiments carried out for an MR damper subjected to harmonic excitations generated by the MTS (material testing system). Dominant frequencies of excitation varied by up to 20 Hz during experiments. The main novelty of the reported solution is that according to the proposed control algorithm, the desired forces generated by MR dampers emulate an additional virtual mechanical exciter of the vibrating screen. In turn, it interacts with the available exciter, resulting in conversion of the trajectory from circular to linear, which was validated in the presented study. For the purpose of simulation accuracy, the desired control force was additionally limited within the simulator by MR damper dissipative domain, which maps the constraints of a semi-active damper. The presented approach allows one to obtain a close to linear trajectory with only one exciter and with semi-active control of suspension stiffness. The results were successfully repeated with different configurations of desired trajectory, indicating that the effectiveness of the desired linear trajectory generation depends on its orientation. The reported findings may lead to the design of new vibrating screen constructions, taking advantage of the semi-active control of a suspension in the attenuation of disturbance resulting from varying processed material parameters.