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Abstract
The increasing level of mineral exports from Australia has resulted in the need for expansions to
existing facilities and new export facilities. Rail-mounted materials handling machines such as
shiploaders, stackers and reclaimers are significant investment items for the ports and mines
involved in the supply chain for export of these commodities. Australia is one of the few countries
to have its own standard for such equipment: AS4324.1.
INTRODUCTION
AS4324.1 Mobile equipment for continuous handling of
bulk materials Part 1- General requirements for the
design of steel structures was introduced in 1995. The
Standard had a long gestation period [5], with work
commencing in 1978. Its release in 1995 was timely in
response to a number of failures of bulk materials
handling machines in Australia in the early 1990s. This
Standard applies to mobile equipment for continuous
handling of bulk materials, e.g. excavators, stackers,
reclaimers, shiploaders, and ship unloaders. It was
intended that AS4324: Part 1, which deals with steel
structures, would be followed by other parts addressing
mechanical, electrical and other aspects. However this
has not occurred.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
has published a design standard for bulk materials
handling machines, ISO5049.1 [3] which has been
widely used internationally and was used in Australia
prior to 1995. There are significant differences between
AS4324.1 and ISO5049.1; generally speaking,
machines designed according to AS4324.1 are heavier
than similar machines designed to ISO5409.1. German
Standard DIN 2226 [2] has been written specifically for
machines working in large brown coal open cut mines,
including bucket wheel excavators. AS4324.1 has
adopted material from DIN 22261 and its predecessors
in addition to material from ISO5049.1.
Stacker Reclaimers
Figure 1 shows the components on an older style of
stacker reclaimer. The machine has a long travel
motion along tracks propelled by driven wheels on the
bogie system. In the stacking mode, bulk material is fed
onto the machine from the yard belt via a tripper which
discharges onto the elevator. Material travels on a
conveyor up the elevator and discharges through a
chute onto the boom conveyor. The bulk material
discharges onto the stockpile from the end of the boom.
Stackers
Stackers predominately long travel with limited slewing
motions in order to lay the stockpiles for subsequent
reclaiming by a slewing or bridge type reclaimers. On
modern designs luffing is carried out by means of
hydraulic cylinders. Stackers with longer spans are
often articulated to provide less variation in load during
the luffing motion.
Reclaimers
Bucket wheel boom type reclaimers are similar to a
bucket wheel stacker reclaimer (see Figure 1) but
without the stacking function, so they do not include a
tripper and elevator. Bridge reclaimers of the bucket
wheel type are often used for reclaiming on the face of
a blended stockpile. Such machines have rakes
which are used to loosen material on the active face.
Shiploaders
Long travelling shiploaders with a wheelbase up to
approximately 20 metres commonly have a portal
structure spanning the rails and a fixed boom gantry set
at 90 degrees to the rail track. The boom conveyor and
shiploading chute shuttle in and out to load the hatches
and due to geometry, there are limitations on the length
of in-board travel of the shuttle. The shuttle mechanism
may vary the length of the boom or the boom may be of
fixed length with the shuttle within the boom. Another
configuration is the bridge type which has a large
travelling bridge spanning from the seaward rail to a
second rail or pivot point some distance behind the
berth. A shuttling trolley system, which supports the
boom, tower, and luffing winch system, travels along the
bridge.
The portal slewing type shiploader is suitable for ships
without masts and cargo gear. Trimming of hatches is
accomplished by a combination of slewing and long
travel motions. The portal slewing and shuttling type
shiploader allows for greater flexibility in loading
different ship types than the portal slewing type.
LOADS
The following section describes some of the important
load conditions which have been expanded or covered
in more detail in AS4324.1 than in the ISO or DIN
Standards.
Permanent Dynamics D
The treatment of permanent dynamics uses dynamic
effects factors which multiply the appropriate dead and
live loads. The factors used in AS4324.1 include
additional values to cover rail-mounted machines as
well as crawler mounted equipment.
Buffer Loads OO
The principle adopted is that rail-mounted machines
should be equipped with buffers, and that the machine
structure should be capable of surviving a buffer impact
situation where the machine is driven into the buffers at
full long travel speed. With this impact case as well,
both inertia and drive forces are required to be
considered concurrently.
Burying (ZZ)
This load case is for where collapse of a stockpile or
slippage of the bank could cause the reclaiming or
excavating component of an operating machine to
become partially or fully buried. The Standard allows
for the need for any such appropriate loading to be
addressed in the procurement specification and gives
suggestions on how this may be covered.
LOAD COMBINATIONS
AS4324.1 shows how different load components should
be considered in combination. These are summarised
in Table 3.7 of AS4324.1, together with safety factors
and stability margins. Loads are grouped according to
their frequency of occurrence, i.e. main loads, additional
FATIGUE
AS4324.1 refers to AS4100 [7] for fatigue design.
AS4100 reflects current practice for the design of
welded steel structures subject to fatigue loads. There
are important differences between AS4324.1 and
ISO5049.1. AS4324.1 is prescriptive and gives detailed
guidance on how to calculate the load cases and which
load combinations to consider. ISO5049.1 uses an
outdated mean stress approach to fatigue design
which is not adapted to modern standards. It should
also be noted that structures affected by fatigue must
be regularly inspected for fatigue damage for design
code rules such as AS4100 to apply.
For combining the effects of cyclical load components,
the AS4324.1 approach is to consider the fatigue
damage resulting from the cyclical stresses produced
by each component of the loading spectrum and
carrying out a cumulative damage assessment by
Miner's rule summation. AS4100 requires a capacity
factor of 0.7 to be applied for non-redundant load paths
and inaccessible areas for inspection.
STRENGTH ASSESSMENT
AS4324.1 allows for the use of either the permissible
stress method (also termed working stress) to AS3990
[9] or limit states method to AS4100 to be used for
strength design.
BUCKLING ASSESSMENT
AS4324.1 permits buckling assessment, either to the
limit state procedures of AS4100 or to the permissible
stress procedures of AS3990. This is directly applicable
to design of beams and columns. Design of plate work
structures for the base and other major components to
resist buckling and to accommodate shear lag effects is
not well covered in the steel design standards AS4100
or AS3990. AS4324.1 covers this to some extent in
section 5.4 and Appendix J.
DESIGN AUDIT
Appendix K
auditing and
engineering
independent
the original
analysis.
WEIGHING
AS4324.1 requires that after a machine has been
constructed, the mass and centre of gravity of the
machine as built should be accurately determined. The
final weight of a machine is often greater than that
advised at the time of tender even when the supplier
has carried out an upfront concept design phase.
AS4324.1 stipulates that if the construction mass
exceeds the mass used in the calculation of static loads
Design Audit
Qualifications of the design audit engineer and the need
to audit mechanical and electrical items are not covered
in AS4324.1. Where the audit engineers function is
provided as part of the contract for the machine, the
purchase specifications should be specific in this
respect to avoid differing interpretations.
Permanent Dynamics D
In general more guidance on the application of
permanent dynamic effects would be a useful addition
to the standard.
For stability calculations, a uniform dynamic multiplier
as adopted in AS4324.1 can produce non-conservative
results. A triangular-distributed acceleration as shown
in Figure 2 is more appropriate.
Wind Loads
The Standard is written with reference to the 1989
edition of AS1170.2 and uses wind forces for
permissible stress design, Vp rather than wind forces for
ultimate design Vu. Subsequent editions of the wind
load standard, AS1170.2 published in 2002 and 2011
only include Vu and do not include Vp. specifically. This
is an area where revision would be appropriate. It may
be necessary to define an intermediate wind speed for
relocation to the storm park position and for parking with
rail clamps. Care needs to be taken in cyclonic areas
where wind is a controlling load case, as use of
permissible stress design wind speed may be nonconservative.
Plate Buckling
The AS4324.1 assessment method for plate bucking
can be difficult to apply. In practice, plate bucking is
generally handled by finite element analysis and
alternative design standards such as BS5400 [1] or the
Merrison Committee recommendations [4] are used. It
is suggested that revisions to AS4324.1 should address
this.
CONCLUSIONS
AS4324.1 has been in use for over 16 years and major
machine suppliers and design audit engineers operating
in Australia are now familiar with the document. Since
the introduction of AS4324.1, the majority of new
machines in Australia have been subject to a third party
design audit. Its application in the procurement of bulk
handling equipment for Australian ports and mines has
generally resulted in robust and reliable machines which
are expected to offer long-term benefits. Some areas in
the Standard have caused issues and pending revisions
to the Standard, this has generally been covered in
purchase specifications.
Now that most industry
participants are familiar with the Standard, revisions
would be appropriate as part of continuous
improvement in the industry.
REFERENCES
1. British Standards Institute (1982). BS5400:
Steel, Concrete and Composite Bridges.
2. German Institute for Standardization (2006),
DIN 22261-2 Excavators, Stackers and
Ancillary Equipment in Brown Coal Open Cut
Mines Part 2 Calculation Principals
3. International Organization for Standardization
(1994). ISO5049.1: Mobile Equipment for the
Continuous Handling of Bulk Materials Part 1
Rules for the Design of Steel Structures.
4. Merrison, A. W., Flint, A. R., Harper, W. J.,
Horne, M. R. and Scruby, G. F. B. (1973).
HMSO Merrison Committee Report on the
Design and Erection of Steel Box Girder
Bridges, Part 1 to Part 4.
5. Morgan, R. C. (2011) Design of Materials
Handling
Machines
to
AS4324.1-1995,
Australasian
Structural
Engineering
Conference, Perth, 12 July 2012
6. Morrison, W. R. B. et al. (1996). A New
Australian Standard for Continuous Bulk
Materials
Handling
Machines,
National
Conference on Bulk Materials Handling 30
September - 2 October 1996, Melbourne.
Steel
AS3990: