A study of indentation rolling resistance to motion of conveyor belts using a generalized Maxwell model of the backing material

A formula based on Winkler foundation and generalized viscoelastic Maxwell model of belt backing material has been given by Thomas J Rudolphi to determine the indentation rolling resistance. However, this formula must be solved by the iteration. As a result, the influence of some common working conditions can be reflected indirectly on this formula that results in the formula not being useful practically. On the other hand, the formula which is developed by Jonkers can reflect firstly the effect of working condition directly except for belt speed, but this formula has an inherent deficiency where Jonkers assumes that the indentation depth is independent of the belt speed. However, if the vertical load is assumed to be constant then the indentation depth and the contact will decrease with increasing belt speed in nature. Therefore, it offers an advantageous reference for simplifying the Rudolphi's formula to get an analytic formula which can exhibit the influence of working condition on the rolling resistance. In this paper, author analyzes the effect of common working conditions on rolling resistance with the help of Rudolphi's formula firstly. Then, in the premise of satisfying the suitable precision, author simplifies the Rudolphi's formula to get an analytic formula. Finally, a verification example based on experiment is given to validate the rationality of analytic formula which may be of interest to belt-conveyor designers.