Calibration and validation of a large scale abrasive wear model by coupling DEM-FEM: Local failure prediction from abrasive wear of tipper bodies during unloading of granular material

• Local abrasive wear from granular flow in large scale application was predicted.
• Calibration of wear model from experimental measurements was performed.
• Validation of numerical wear model for large scale application was carried out.
• A numerical method for optimising tipper body design has been established.

Handling of granular materials like rocks, pebbles and sand can expose equipment to abrasive wear that can result in local failure. In some cases this can have far reaching economic significance such as the costs of replacement, the costs from machine downtime and lost production. Models for predicting wear can be found from lab scale tests, but are difficult to apply in large scale applications. An important property is the flow behaviour of granular material during its transportation in a granular material handling system. In order to effectively predict abrasive wear in large scale applications, models for solid structure, granular material flow and wear behaviour have to be coupled. In this work; the finite element method is used to model the structure of the tipper body and the discrete element method is used to model the granular material. To couple the structure response to granular flow behaviour a contact model is used. A calibration of the wear constant in Archard's wear law is obtained from measurement data of rotating drum tests, using the representative material combination used in a tipper unloading case. This wear model is then used in a full scale tipper body simulation to predict the absolute wear and validated against field measurement. A good agreement between numerical calculation and field measurement regarding the spatial position and size of wear areas were found. This combination of numerical methods gives new possibilities to understand the wear process and is one step towards more physically correct models for large scale predictions between tipper bodies and granular material. Numerical tools can give future opportunities to optimise material selections and geometry with the intension to increase functionality, life of large scale wear applications and avoid local failure.