Sliding friction and wear behavior of winding hoisting rope in ultra-deep coal mine under different conditions

Abstract Wear problems exist in multi-layer windings of ultra-deep coal mine hoisting ropes that are wound around drums. Wear decreases the life of such hoisting ropes directly, and that in turn threatens mine safety. An investigation of winding hoisting ropes was conducted using a custom test rig to study the effects of different contact loads, crossing angles and displacement amplitudes on rope friction and wear. Results show that the coefficient of friction (COF) in the steady-state period changes very little with an increase in contact load and that it stabilizes at about 0.61. Additionally, the COF slightly decreases with an increase of crossing angle. As the amplitude of sliding motion increases to 30 mm and 50 mm, the COF increases linearly. Using thermal imaging, the temperature rise in the steady-state period increases with the contact load and crossing angle. Moreover, the maximum wear depth increases linearly with an increase of contact load. Nevertheless, the wear depth changed very little when the amplitude is less than 30 mm, but it increases rapidly until an amplitude of 70 mm. The major wear mechanisms of ropes without lubrication include adhesive wear, abrasive wear and fatigue wear.