Scale Prediction of Crush Rock Shovel Pad Stability

• Author / Creator

  Shi,Enjia

• Adverse mining equipment motions give rise to ground deterioration and poor ground conditions will in turn aggravate equipment structural damage as a result of enhanced detrimental motions of the equipment. Costs for correcting equipment fatigue failures are tremendous. Consideration of a suitable mining or operating surface material to improve ground conditions through knowledge of material performance under equipment cyclic loading leads to better mine operating surface designs, lower maintenance costs and more reasonable operational strategies.
  In investigating the performance of crushed limestone as a potential enhancing ground material under shovel tracks during shovel duty cycles, a shovel-ground equilibrium has been analysed to determine ground pressures under shovel tracks. Cyclic plate load tests were conducted to develop an overall view of crushed limestone behavior under cyclic loading. A relationship between pressure stiffness and plate shape was discerned with respect to initial loading, which provides a reference for tracked-equipment manufactures for track design. For cyclic loading conditions during excavating operations, resilient stiffness was shown to be consistent with the stress-deformation response displayed by the more conventional CBR test. Therefore, CBR may be applied to approximate the resilient stiffness of crushed limestone. A correlation between total deformation and the number of cycles was established for different plate aspect ratios and stress levels.
  The last stage of this study combined the shovel loading cycles and material performance together to estimate the ground deformation as duty cycles increase to optimize a shovel operational duration in a single location.
  The CBR test was performed to verify the applicability of the crushed limestone as a cap material in a multi-layer haul road on weak in-situ material.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Crushed limestone
  • Shovel pad stability
  • Cyclic plate load test
  • Haul road design
  • CBR test

• Graduation date

  Spring 2015

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3HD0N

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.