Research on Energy Efficiency Characteristics of Mining Shovel Hoisting and Slewing System Driven by Hydraulic-Electric Hybrid System

Mining shovel is a crucial piece of equipment for high-efficiency production in open-pit mining and stands as one of the largest energy consumption sources in mining. However, substantial energy waste occurs during the descent of the hoisting system or the deceleration of the slewing platform. To reduce the energy loss, an innovative hydraulic-electric hybrid drive system is proposed, in which a hydraulic pump/motor connected with an accumulator is added to assist the electric motor to drive the hoisting system or slewing platform, recycling kinetic and potential energy. The utilization of the kinetic and potential energy reduces the energy loss and installed power of the mining shovel. Meanwhile, the reliability of the mining shovel pure electric drive system also can be increased. In this paper, the hydraulic-electric hybrid driving principle is introduced, a small-scale testbed is set up to verify the feasibility of the system, and a co-simulation model of the proposed system is established to clarify the system operation and energy characteristics. The test and simulation results show that, by adopting the proposed system, compared with the traditional purely electric driving system, the peak power and energy consumption of the hoisting electric motor are reduced by 36.7% and 29.7%, respectively. Similarly, the slewing electric motor experiences a significant decrease in peak power by 86.9% and a reduction in energy consumption by 59.4%. The proposed system expands the application area of the hydraulic electric hybrid drive system and provides a reference for its application in oversized and super heavy equipment.