Abstract:
The improvement of the energy efficiency of belt conveyor systems can be achieved at equipment and
operation levels. Specifically, variable speed control, an equipment level intervention, is recommended
to improve operation efficiency of belt conveyors. However, the current implementations mostly focus
on lower level control loops without operational considerations at the system level. This paper intends
to take a model based optimization approach to improve the efficiency of belt conveyors at the operational
level. An analytical energy model, originating from ISO 5048, is firstly proposed, which lumps all
the parameters into four coefficients. Subsequently, both an off-line and an on-line parameter estimation
schemes are applied to identify the new energy model, respectively. Simulation results are presented for
the estimates of the four coefficients. Finally, optimization is done to achieve the best operation efficiency
of belt conveyors under various constraints. Six optimization problems of a typical belt conveyor system
are formulated, respectively, with solutions in simulation for a case study.
