FAILURE ANALYSIS OF COVER PLATE OF A HEAD STOCK USING FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

Abstract

The cover plate of a head stock of a crusher in a sugar industry develops a crack and causing its premature failure. The failure causes the hindrances in the proper functioning of the machine, resulting into heavy loss. It is a costly affair to change the cover plate frequently. So it was proposed to investigate the causes of the failure and the work is to deal with the stress analysis of this cover plate under the applied loads and to investigate the reasons responsible for the initiation of crack. Here, two cases of the problem have been considered, one with the ideal geometry and dimensions and the second with slight change in the geometry of the region where the crack occurs. For both the cases, the results have been computed and discussed. The Finite Element Method has been used. The work also includes the modifications to be suggested for the safe run of the system. The cover plate of a head stock of crusher has been discretized into a finite elements. The material properties and governing relationships are considered over these elements and expressed in terms of unknown values at element corners. An assembly process duly considering the loading and constraints results in a set of equations. Solution of these equations gives the approximate behavior of the continuum in terms of stresses and strains. Commercially available software ANSYS has been used to investigate this problem. 11