Safe Operation of Underground Mining Vehicles Based on Cyclic Fatigue Monitoring of Powertrains

This research is dedicated to the problem of automatic monitoring of the operational loading of heavy vehicles for minerals transportation in harsh conditions of underground mines. The torsional vibrations excited in the powertrains by the driver’s control actions (running, loading, reverse) are investigated on the multi-body nonlinear dynamical model, which accounts diesel engine torque characteristics, changes in transmission structure due to gears switching, lock-up activation in the hydraulic torque converter and angular clearances in the Cardan shafts couplings. The slowly sampled real signals of the on-board monitoring system are combined with the fast modelled transient responses in the range of torsional natural modes. The obtained results of simulations allow observing and optimisation of the most severe working modes to reduce amplitudes of torsional vibrations, which cause the abrupt failures in the vehicles. Besides, the database is under development for fatigueFatigue cycles accumulation and remained useful life prediction of powertrains elements for diagnostics procedures and maintenance planning.