Course code: wb3412
Course name: Bulk Materials Handling Systems and Equipment

Course cancelled in 2002-2003

DUT credit points: 2,5
ECTS credit points: 3,75

Tel.: 015-27 86706

• Analysis of the design and operation of bulk terminals. Functions and requirements, lay-out, input-, output- and other handling equipment.
• Equipment and strategies for loading inland ships and barges with bulk material.
• Logistic aspects regarding number and lengths of unloading berths, waiting time of ships, pattern of arrival and degree of occupation of the unloading cranes.
• Analysis of several concepts for the slewing upper structure of stacker-reclaimers equipped with a digging wheel-on-boom.
• Concepts to support the lower structure with wheels and bogies on the rails.
• Strategies of building and recovery of storage piles. Regular versus random built stockpiles in the stockyard lanes. Alternative machine for wheel-on-boom devices, operating over the width of the storage lane.
• Construction and functioning of belt conveyors, determination of resistance forces. Acceleration of the input material. Driving force and power at the driving drum, possibilities of a two drum drive. Types of belt stretching devices. Combined operation of electric motor and fluid clutch during start of the conveyor. Optimization of the trough of the conveyor.
• Weighing and dosing, necessity and location of weighing devices in bulk materials handling facilities. Several weighing principles, static weighing of silos, dynamic weighing of belt conveyor load.
• Analysis and judgment of several types of feeders from viewpoint of process control and mechanics.
• Blending pile systems, composing, homogenization and buffering function. Building and reclaiming strategies and equipment. Construction and functioning of scraper and wheel reclaimer. Application of probability theory to predict homogenization efficiency.
• Characteristics of bulk material as cohesion, adhesion, distribution of particle sizes, specific mass and internal friction. Elementary mechanics, stresses and forces, circles of Mohr, angle of repose, active and passive shearing of the material.
• Construction and operation of silos, formulas for vertical and wall pressure, analysis of bridging in the hopper. Material flow patterns in the silo.
• Mammoth silos, construction and operation of the input- and output equipment, especially the screw conveyor. Mass flow and resistance forces on the screw in relation to the diameter, the pitch of the screw, as well as the number of revolutions around the screw axis and the central column.