Title: Optimal design of the key structure of planetary concrete mixers based on EDEM

Authors: Zhiyong He; Tao Wang

Addresses: School of Automobile and Mechanical Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha, China; Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Intelligent Manufacturing Technology for High-performance Mechanical Equipment, Changsha, China ' School of Automobile and Mechanical Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha, China

Abstract: The purpose of the paper is to further improve the mixing uniformity of concrete aggregates, thereby improving the quality and mixing efficiency of concrete. Taking the structure of a planetary concrete mixer produced by a company as a reference, the discrete element software EDEM was adopted to simulate the material mixing process and to analyse the mixing uniformity. It is found in the simulation that the aggregates at the side wall of the mixing tank are not mixed evenly when the shape of the side scraper of the mixer is modified from a flat surface to a curved surface. The results show that the structural optimisation makes the trajectory of the aggregates more complicated and improves the mixing quality, the mixing uniformity of the three aggregates being increased by 16%, 10.1%, and 22.1%, respectively. The simulation results of the discrete element can provide reference for actual product design.

Keywords: planetary mixer; inefficient mixing area; discrete element method; structural optimisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMPT.2021.115830

International Journal of Materials and Product Technology, 2021 Vol.62 No.4, pp.295 - 310

Received: 28 May 2020
Accepted: 08 Jan 2021
Published online: 24 Jun 2021 *

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