PREDICTION OF POWER REQUIREMENTS FOR A LONGWALL ARMORED FACE CONVEYOR

Longwall armored face conveyors (AFC's) have traditionally been design ed using a combination of heuristics and simple models. However, as lo ngwalls increase in length, these design procedures are proving to be inadequate. The result has either been a costly loss of production due to AFC stalling or component failure, or larger than necessary capita l investment due to overdesign. In order to allow accurate estimation of the power requirements for an AFC, this paper develops a comprehens ive model of all the friction forces associated with the AFC. Power re quirement predictions obtained from these models are then compared wit h measurements from two mine faces.