Transport performance of a steeply situated belt conveyor

Abstract

The paper presents a methodology for determining the volume of a batch of conveyed material located before a transverse partition of a certain height and the distance over which the batch of material extends on the working surface of the conveyor belt along its longitudinal axis. Knowing the geometric dimensions of the transported batch of material makes it possible to appropriately set the spacing of the belt cleats and thereby to optimally determine the conveying performance of the inclined belt conveyor. When the angle of inclination of a conveyor with a straight idler frame is equal to the angle of surcharge of the conveyed material, then no layer of material is carried on the surface of the belt. If the conveyor belt is guided along a trough idler frame, only the lower cross‐section of the filling of material is used. An increase in the cross‐section of the belt load of a conveyor inclined at an angle, which exceeds the angle of repose of the conveyed material, can be achieved by installing regularly spaced belt cleats around the circumference of the working surface of the endless loop of the conveyor belt. The volume of the batch of material retained by the belt cleat depends on the height and width of the cleat and whether or not the conveyor belt is provided with corrugated side edges. The paper presents theoretically determined relationships that can be used to determine the size of the transverse and longitudinal area and the volume of the batch of material spread on the surface of the conveyor belt in front of the cleat. The experiments performed provide the distances of the material distribution on the surface of the conveyor belt depending on the height of the cleat and the angle of inclination of the conveyor belt.