Investigation of Collision Behavior of Hoisting Catenaries during a Lifting Cycle in Coal Mines

This investigation focused on the analyses of transverse vibrations of mine hoisting catenaries where collision between adjacent ropes is more likely to occur. To support the analyses of transverse vibrations of catenaries, theoretical correlation models for longitudinal tension and transverse vibration were first established. Based on a severe rope collision case, on-site measurements and numerical simulations were performed. The research results indicated that the external second-order excitation frequency induced by axial fluctuations of head sheave was the primary excitation frequency, which was closer to the resonance frequency. Furthermore, the effects of excitation amplitude and imbalanced tension were also investigated revealing that larger excitation amplitude contributes to larger response amplitude and the maximum response amplitude of a catenary is sensitive to imbalanced rope tension. Eventually, new solutions, which will facilitate hoisting catenary operation beyond the resonance frequency range, were proposed.