Analysis of the specific energy consumption for underground mining belt conveyor with single drive unit using bevel helical gearboxes

Abstract

The specific energy consumption is an important crite-rion which is used to evaluate the energy efficiency of underground mining belt conveyors. In this paper, the specific energy consumption is considered as a function of the load weight on a belt conveyor which is expressed in analytic form. This formulation is then used to anal-yse the energy efficiency of a typical underground belt conveyor in coal mines with single drive unit using bevel helical gearboxes in compliance with several transmis-sion schematics. The result of the paper can be applied to the optimization problem of energy consumption for underground mining belt conveyors.