Influence of cutting parameters and interactions on the depth of cut in continuous mining operation

During mechanized continuous mining, the depth of cut (DOC) of picks on the drum directly affects the forces exerted on the picks, as well as the forces and torque acting on the drum. Therefore, accurate analysis of DOC of individual picks is needed to optimize the design of the drum and the operation of the continuous mining machine. However, the current existing models cannot meet this need, because they only take into account drum advance speed per revolution and the spirals of picks or the picks per cutting line. In this paper, we attempt to improve the accuracy of DOC calculation by considering drum advance speed per revolution, cutting patterns, the interactions between picks and the profiles of picks. Furthermore, the change of DOC of individual pick in a cutting cycle is also analyzed. The proposed models can help calculate pick forces and drum's reactive forces more accurately. They also enable those empirical force models which are developed based on the experiments with small DOC to be used for force analysis with larger DOC more accurately.