Study on the wear of spiral drum cutting coal containing rock

Significant load fluctuations are encountered when cutting the coal rock using the shearer spiral drum, causing excessive drum wear. Thus, a coupling discrete element model of coal-rock was developed, and the discrete element method and multi-body dynamics were used to build a two-way coupling simulation model of coal rock drum cutting. The drum wear was analyzed, along with the pick and spiral blade wear positions. The results have shown that the pick wear is primarily concentrated at the pick tip and the shaft shoulder, while the outer spiral blade edge blade is generally worn near the pick root. The maximum wear depth obtained in the simulation was 0.00316 mm. The tangential cumulative energy of the drum and the normal cumulative energy were 1.794e5 and 7.819e4 J, respectively. The friction wear of the drum was more prominent compared to the impact wear. By using a single factor method, the relationship between the drum rotational speed, traction speed, rock firmness coefficient, cutting depth, and spiral blade angle, and drum wear was obtained. Finally, it was concluded that the study at hand provides a quick and straightforward way to study drum wear law.