Presets
Playback
Machine settings
The digging wheel and the conveyor are in series: the slower of the two fixes the tonnes per hour.
Mode
Model checks
The science
What is modelled
A bucket wheel on the end of a boom digs ore and drops it on a belt. Each bucket delivers its fill once per revolution; the belt carries a cross-section of material at belt speed. The slower stage limits the line.
Equations
- Wheel tip speed
u = pi D n / 60. - Wheel capacity
Q_w = 60 n z V k rho(t/h) with z buckets of volume V and fill k. - Belt capacity
Q_b = 3600 S v rho; throughputmin(Q_w, Q_b). - Lift power
P = Q g H / eta.
Checks run in the page
- Tip speed from diameter and rpm.
- Bucket discharges counted over two minutes.
- Which stage limits the flow.
- The 3D plant model doubles its throughput when wheel speed doubles.
Honest simplifications
The plant model is the 3D page's illustrative one; bucket count, bucket volume, fill, belt cross-section and lift height are invented for teaching. No cutting forces, pile geometry, boom dynamics or wear are modelled.
What to try
- Press Fast wheel, slow belt: the belt becomes the bottleneck.
- Press Slow wheel, fast belt: now the wheel limits.
- Raise the bulk density: both capacities grow in tonnes per hour.