Mining dozers are heavy-duty machines that operate in harsh environments and under extreme loads. The durability of their powertrain components is critical for their performance and reliability. To ensure the durability of these components, they need to be tested under realistic operating conditions. However, field testing is time-consuming, costly and often impractical due to the limited availability of test sites and machines. Therefore, there is a need to develop an accelerated durability cycle that can simulate the field conditions in a laboratory setting. This paper presents a methodology to develop an accelerated powertrain durability cycle for mining dozers based on the integration of customer usage patterns and road load data. The methodology consists of the following steps: (1) system study to identify the powertrain components and their failure modes; (2) instrumentation of a representative mining dozer with sensors and data acquisition system; (3) data collection from field testing for mining, ripping and dozing operations; (4) data processing for usage pattern analysis and road load extraction; (5) accelerated duty cycle creation using customer usage correlation data and fatigue damage models. The methodology was applied to a mining dozer model and the results showed that the accelerated cycle can reproduce the field damage in a shorter time and with less variability. The paper also discusses the challenges and limitations of the methodology and suggests future directions for improvement. The paper contributes to the literature on durability testing of heavy-duty vehicles by proposing a novel approach that combines customer usage patterns and road load data to create an accelerated powertrain durability cycle for mining dozers.
Keywords: mining dozer, powertrain durability, customer usage pattern, road load data, accelerated duty cycle
References:
[1] Joshi, A., Santhoshkumar, S., Priyan, E., Kumbhar, R. et al., "Evaluation of Collaboration of Automotive Researchers in Indian Automotive Industry: A Trend Analysis of SIAT Conferences Held from 2001 to 2017," SAE Technical Paper 2023-01-5007, 2023.
[2] SIAT - SAEINDIA - Automotive Engineers, Automotive Engineering Conferences, Automotive Engineering Events, Automotive Engineering Events in chennai, mobility technology, Professional Events, TIFAN, Aero Design Challenge, FISITA, Mobility Engineering, Tractor Design Competition, Aero Design Challenge. https://saeindia.org/siat/