Parametric numerical analysis of anti-adhesion structural design for a bucket wheel reclaimer

To address the reduced discharge efficiency of Bucket Wheel Reclaimers caused by the strong material adhesion, this study investigates a typical Bucket Wheel Reclaimer used for lateritic nickel ore. Following the calibration of the discrete element method (DEM) parameters, simulations were conducted to investigate the effects of the bucket-lip cutting angle, bucket depth, and chute width on discharge performance. The results showed that increasing the bucket-lip cutting angle increased the reclaiming mass but also increased the residual mass after discharge, resulting in no significant improvement in the discharging mass. When the bucket depths were reduced to 1100 and 1200 mm, the average residual mass decreased markedly, while the corresponding discharging masses increased to 1053.4 and 1309.8 kg, respectively. The discharge ratio increased from 28% to approximately 51%, accompanied by reduced adhesion to the bucket walls. Furthermore, when the chute width was increased to 4400 mm, the discharging mass increased to 1200.5 kg and the discharge ratio reached 56.7%, without a significant increase in chute adhesion. These findings indicate that optimizing the bucket depth and chute width can significantly improve the discharge performance of lateritic nickel ore, thereby providing theoretical support for equipment modification.