Strength Development Monitoring of Cemented Paste Backfill Using Guided Waves.

The strength of cemented paste backfill (CPB) directly affects mining safety and progress. At present, in-situ backfill strength is obtained by conducting uniaxial compression tests on backfill core samples. At the same time, it is time-consuming, and the integrity of samples cannot be guaranteed. Therefore guided wave technique as a nondestructive inspection method is proposed for the strength development monitoring of cemented paste backfill. In this paper, the acoustic parameters of guided wave propagation in the different cement-tailings ratios (1:4, 1:8) and different curing times (within 42 d) of CPBs were measured. Combined with the uniaxial compression strength of CPB, relationships between CPB strength and the guided wave acoustic parameters were established. Results indicate that with the increase of backfill curing time, the guided wave velocity decreases sharply at first; on the contrary, attenuation of guided waves increases dramatically. Finally, both velocity and attenuation tend to be stable. When the CPB strength increases with curing time, guided wave velocity shows an exponentially decreasing trend, while the guided wave attenuation shows an exponentially increasing trend with the increase of the CPB strength. Based on the relationship curves between CPB strength and guided wave velocity and attenuation, the guided wave technique in monitoring the strength development of CPB proves feasible.

Comprehensive Improvement of the Sensitivity and Detectability of a Large-Aperture Electromagnetic Wear Particle Detector.

The electromagnetic wear particle detector has been widely studied due to its prospective applications in various fields. In order to meet the requirements of the high-precision wear particle detector, a comprehensive method of improving the sensitivity and detectability of the sensor is proposed. Based on the nature of the sensor, parallel resonant exciting coils are used to increase the impedance change of the exciting circuit caused by particles, and the serial resonant topology structure and an amorphous core are applied to the inductive coil, which improves the magnetic flux change of the inductive coil and enlarges the induced electromotive force of the sensor. Moreover, the influences of the resonance frequency on the sensitivity and effective particle detection range of the sensor are studied, which forms the basis for optimizing the frequency of the magnetic field within the sensor. For further improving the detectability of micro-particles and the real-time monitoring ability of the sensor, a simple and quick extraction method for the particle signal, based on a modified lock-in amplifier and empirical mode decomposition and reverse reconstruction (EMD-RRC), is proposed, which can effectively extract the particle signal from the raw signal with low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The simulation and experimental results show that the proposed methods improve the sensitivity of the sensor by more than six times.

Magnetic Properties of Ferromagnetic Particles under Alternating Magnetic Fields: Focus on Particle Detection Sensor Applications.

The electromagnetic wear particles detection sensor has been widely studied due to its ability to monitor the wear status of equipment in real time. To precisely estimate the change of the magnetic energy of the sensor coil caused by the wear particles, the magnetic property models of wear particles under the alternating magnetic field was established. The models consider the hysteresis effect and the eddy current effect of the wear particles. The analysis and experimental results show that with the increase of the effective field frequency, the change of the magnetic energy caused by the wear particles gradually decrease, which makes the induced electromotive force output by the sensor reduce with the decrease of the particle speed, so a signal compensation method is presented to obtain a unified signal when the same wear particle passing through the sensor in different speeds. The magnetic coupling effect between the two adjacent wear particles is analyzed. The result illustrates that the change of the magnetic energy caused by the dual wear particles system is larger than the sum of the energy variation caused by two independent wear particles, and with the increase of the interparticle distance, the magnetic coupling effect gradually weakens and disappears.

[Failure Prediction of Power-Shift Steering Transmission Based on Oil Spectral Analysis with Wiener Process].

The most common methodology used in element concentration measurement and analyzing of wear particles is Atomic emission (AE) spectroscopy. As an indirect measuring method, the oil spectral data is introduced to indicate the performance degradation and the residual life prediction in the reliability evaluation of Power shift steering transmission (PSST). Stochastic methods especially the Wiener process is convenient in solving and analyzing the unitary degradation failure indicated by the oil spectral data. The oil data have been sampled in the real operating condition, and the data set has more than 50 samples taken from PSST. The mean values and time-dependent characteristics of three indicating elements are statistically obtained by the linear regression analysis. The model of the degradation and failure prediction has been proposed based on the Wiener process with the positive drift. For modeling and simulation the software R was used. Therefore, the trend curves of diffusion process with their First Hitting Time have been predicted. Through comparison, the time intervals of condition-based maintenance have been extended as 27 Mh (15.9%). This will save the cost of maintenances by eliminate the preventive maintained cycles. The advantage and novelty of the outcomes presented in the article are that the stochastic process might be applied for predicting the degradation failure occurrence and also for optimizing the maintenance intervals and the cost-benefit. As might be expected, the method can be extended to other cases of wear prediction and evaluation in complex mechanical system.

Research and Evaluation on Wear in Power-Shift Steering Transmission Through Oil Spectral Analysis with RKPCA Method.

The most common methodology used in element concentration measurement and analyzing of wear particles is Atomic emission (AE) spectroscopy. The present paper presents an evaluation method on wear in power-shift steering transmission (PSST). By removing the problematic components which were highly correlated with oil additives, the robust kernel principal component analysis (RKPCA) method and the principal component analysis (PCA) method were accessed to extract the principal components of spectral data for oil samples collected from the life-cycle test of PSST in different stage and to calculate the amount of each principal component and its contribution rate respectively. A comparison between the above mentioned two methods was made to show that RKPCA method has fewer amounts of principal components and higher cumulative contribution rate indicating that RKPCA method acts more effectively in variable dimension reduction due to the outliers and nonlinearity of spectral data. Therefore, the effectiveness of RKPCA method in classification and identification of the wear in friction pairs was demonstrated subsequently. through the correlation analysis between the variable coefficients of RKPCA and metal elements of friction pairs. The demonstration showed that RKPCA functioned precisely in the classification and identification of the wear in friction pairs, and in the evaluation on the wear in PSST. Thereafter, to detect the threshold point where the wear took place, the fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm was introduced to classify the RKPCA eigenvalues, and the results were compared with that of the spectral clustering algorithm. The fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm showed higher sensitivity in detecting the threshold point indicting a more precise evaluation on the wear in PSST. It is clear that the introduction of RKPCA method in wear evaluation, which takes the eigenvalues of spectral data as a critical variable to classify and identify the wear in different friction pairs as well as in the integral PSST configuration, shows better accuracy in wear prediction and will contribute to the reliable determination of life between overhauls and the accurate positioning of worn-out parts. As might be expected, the proposed method can be extended to other cases of wear detection and evaluation in complex mechanical system.

Study on Spline Stress of Separator Plates in a Wet Multi-Plate Clutch.

The spline teeth fracture of separator plates in wet multi-plate clutches compromises driving safety and the vehicle's lifespan. Tooth fracture is mainly caused by stress concentration at the tooth root and uneven circumferential load distribution. This paper considers parameters such as torque, teeth count, tooth profile, and misalignment errors, establishing the corresponding finite element (FE) model to analyze the impact of the above-mentioned parameters on the strength of the separator plates. Analysis under even and biased load circumstances demonstrated that an optimum tooth count and profile can significantly increase the strength of the separator plates, offering advice for the optimized design of wet multi-plate clutch separator plates.

Influences of the Contact State between Friction Pairs on the Thermodynamic Characteristics of a Multi-Disc Clutch.

The relationship between clutch thermodynamic characteristics and contact states of friction components is explored numerically and experimentally. The clutch thermodynamic numerical model is developed with consideration of the contact state and oil film between friction pairs. The clutch bench test is conducted to verify the variation of the clutch thermodynamic characteristics from the uniform contact (UCS) to the intermittent contact (ICS). The results show that the oil film decreases gradually with increasing temperature; the lubrication state finally changes from hydrodynamic lubrication to dry friction, where the friction coefficient shows an increasing trend before a decrease. Thus, the friction torque in UCS gradually increases after the applied pressure stabilizes. When the contact state changes to ICS, the contact pressure increases suddenly and the oil film decreases rapidly in the local contact area, bringing about a sharp increase in friction torque; subsequently, the circumferential and radial temperature differences of friction components expand dramatically. However, if the contact zone is already in the dry friction state, friction torque declines directly, resulting in clutch failure. The conclusions can potentially be used for online monitoring and fault diagnosis of the clutch.

Friction-Wear Characteristics of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Paper-Based Friction Materials under Different Working Conditions.

To study the friction and wear performance of carbon fiber reinforced friction materials under different working conditions, paper-based friction materials with different fibers were prepared. Experiments on the SAE#2 test bench were conducted to study the infectors including friction torques, surface temperature, coefficient of friction (COF), and surface morphologies. The results were analyzed, which indicated that the carbon fiber reinforced friction material could provide a higher friction torque and a lower temperature rising rate under the applied high pressure and high rotating speed conditions. As the pressure increased from 1 MPa to 2.5 MPa, the friction torque of plant fiber reinforced material increased by 150%, the friction torque of carbon fiber reinforced material increased by 400%, and the maximum temperature of plant fiber reinforced and carbon fiber reinforced material reached the highest value at 1.5 MPa. Thus, carbon fibers not only improved the COF and friction torque performance but also had advantages in avoiding thermal failure. Meanwhile, carbon fiber reinforced friction materials can provide a more stable COF as its variable coefficient (α) only rose from 38.18 to 264.62, from 1 MPa to 2.5 MPa, which was much lower than the natural fiber reinforced friction materials. Simultaneously, due to the good dispersion and excellent mechanical properties of PAN chopped carbon fibers, fewer pores formed on the initial surface, which improved the high wear resistance, especially in the intermedia disc.

Effect of Silicon Carbide Nanoparticles on the Friction-Wear Properties of Copper-Based Friction Discs.

To study the influence of nano-additives on the friction-wear characteristics of friction materials, the nano-sized silicon carbide particles which have excellent chemical and physical properties are considered to add in composite to form the modified friction material. The influence of the silicon carbide nanoparticles (SCN) on the friction-wear characteristics of copper-based friction materials (CBFM) is investigated via the SAE#2 (made in Hangzhou, China) clutch bench test with the applied pressure, rotating speed, and automatic transmission fluid (ATF) temperature taken into account. Moreover, the variations of friction torque and temperature are considered to evaluate the friction performance, and the variable coefficient is employed to describe the friction stability. The wear characteristics of friction materials are investigated by the disc changes in thickness and micro-morphology. The results show that the CBFM with SCN can provide a higher friction torque, which increased by 30% to 50% compared with CBFM. The variable coefficient of CBFM with SCN changes from 674 to 52 with the rotating speed raised from 600 rpm to 3000 rpm, which shows that the friction stability is relatively worse. Furthermore, the micromorphology shows that the CBFM with SCN has lower porosity and surface roughness, which increases the microscopic contact area and the coefficient of friction (COF). Simultaneously, the reduction in porosity also leads to a decrease in the cooling quality, bringing about a rapid temperature rise. Thus, the wear amount of CBFM with SCN increases significantly, especially for the friction disc in the axial middle position.

[Health state evaluation of power-shift steering transmission using PCA-AHP methodology based on spectrometric oil analysis].

Spectrometric oil analysis is an important method to study the running state of power-shift steering transmission (PSST). An evaluation model of PSST health state was developed on the basis of the theories of principal component analysis (PCA) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) using spectrometric oil analysis data. Considering the concept of mechanical equipment and wear elements in spectrometric oil analysis data, the health value was employed to quantitatively describe the running state degree of PSST, and the grades of health state were classified based on the health values. The oil analysis data were studied during the process of choosing principal components. The weight vectors of principal components were obtained by using the AHP method. In the course, the conformation of judgement matrix and the consistency check were also studied. The evaluation model was developed by combining the PCA and AHP methods. This model has been proved to have better accuracy in evaluating the running state of PSST. This work is important for developing state evaluation of PSST.

[Improved euler algorithm for trend forecast model and its application to oil spectrum analysis].

The oil atomic spectrometric analysis technology is one of the most important methods for fault diagnosis and state monitoring of large machine equipment. The gray method is preponderant in the trend forecast at the same time. With the use of oil atomic spectrometric analysis result and combining the gray forecast theory, the present paper established a gray forecast model of the Fe/Cu concentration trend in the power-shift steering transmission. Aiming at the shortage of the gray method used in the trend forecast, the improved Euler algorithm was put forward for the first time to resolve the problem of the gray model and avoid the non-precision that the old gray model's forecast value depends on the first test value. This new method can make the forecast value more precision as shown in the example. Combined with the threshold value of the oil atomic spectrometric analysis, the new method was applied on the Fe/Cu concentration forecast and the premonition of fault information was obtained. So we can take steps to prevent the fault and this algorithm can be popularized to the state monitoring in the industry.

[Test research on state monitor of PSST by oil spectrometric analysis].

Through the hydraulic lubrication oil spectrometric analysis, we monitored the state of the power-shift steering transmission (PSST) equipped on the track armored vehicle for a long time. Combined with the friction material analysis inside the PSST, based on the concentration analysis of the wear and tear particle inside the oil, the authors estimated the wear and tear state of the PSST and judged if the PSST had the fault hidden trouble. So we can avoid the serious fault, provide the academic and actual basis for RCM and enhance the dependability for the track armored vehicle. The result of examples proves that the characteristic parameter of oil spectrometric analysis has very high stability and veracity. This method has proved effective in fault diagnosis based on oil spectrometric analysis on multifarious power-transmission systems in our army. This method is a breakthrough of the traditional maintainance model and has great useful military values.

[Study on no-load running-in wear of power-shift steering transmission based on oil spectrum analysis].

The running-in process wear rule of power-shift steering transmission can be studied conveniently and timely by using spectral analysis of oil. The configuration characteristic and the running-in mechanism of power-shift steering transmission were introduced firstly in the present paper. According to the discussion of running-in wear factors such as load, rotation speed, time, oil temperature, shifting number and original concentration of running-in oil, the wear calculation mode was established. The no-load running-in experiments of two power-shift steering transmissions were done, with different rotation speed and time. Based on the spectrum analysis of experiment result, the function relation between running-in wear and the oil original concentration and running-in speed was obtained, so the no-load running-in process wear calculation mode of power-shift steering transmission was confirmed. Through the experiment of other two power-shift steering transmissions, it was validated that the Cu element concentration can be calculated accurately by the wear calculation mode, which included the parameters such as oil original concentration, running-in speed, running-in time and gear shift alternate time. So the reference to evaluate the running-in quality and to constitute running-in regulations was gained.