Abstract
The aim of this study was to develop a specific additional device to in-situ evaluate the changes of resistance forces of belt conveyor at the locations of carrier idlers supporting at the string part, in order to estimate the wear damage of the conveyor belt during driven state the at the site. Some practical carrier idlers were modified to attach the strain gages at the center position of the shaft. The changes of driving resistance and carrying load acting on the carrier idler shaft were simultaneously observed by measuring the difference of bending strains directly. The penetrative displacement of the carrier idler into the belt was measured to evaluate the deformation of conveyor belt due to the compressive force in thickness direction. The bending stiffness of the belt was measured by three point bending test to examine the effect of the difference of the bending stiffness by wear damage on the driving resistance. Test results showed that the data of measured resistance forces by the proposed device in this study were almost reasonable compared with those of known results by other conventional methods. It was said that proposed method was effective to explain the behaviors of resistance forces of the belt conveyor around the carrier idler.
