Power absorption and experimental results of concrete twin shaft mixers

Figure: Sicoma

1a: Twin shaft mixer – inside view

Figure: Sicoma

1b: Twin shaft mixer – exterior view

Figure: Sicoma

2: Different size of mixers

Figure: Sicoma

Figure: University of Perugia

3: Qualitative power absorption curve

Figure: University of Perugia

4: Experimental power consumption curve for a single motor and h=0.253 m

Figure: University of Perugia

5: Experimental power consumption curve for a single motor and h=0.344 m

Figure: University of Perugia

Maria Cristina Valigi

Associate Professor of Mechanics of Machines at University of Perugia, Italy. Her research interests are: Tribology (lubrication models, contact models and wear measures), mechanical vibrations, modeling and control of mechanical systems.

mariacristina.valigi@
unipg.it

Silvia Logozzo

Mechanical Engineer for Automation and Robotics, PhD in Industrial Engineering, expert in mechatronic systems, scanning systems and time of flight scanning techniques. She is a researcher in applied mechanics at University of Perugia and Research and Innovation Manager at V-GER SRL Bologna.

Luca Galletti
Graduated in Mechanical Engineering at University of Perugia. He works in many areas in the Sicoma s.r.l. Company but with specific attention to research and development area and management of foreign branches.

Luca Landi
Associate Professor of Machine Design at University of Perugia – Italy. His research activity is focussed on problems of mechanical design with particular attention to: design, simulation and optimization of mechanical systems with CAD-FEM and MBS, safety of Machinery and methodologies for optimization and environmental evaluation of Machine Tools.

This paper focuses on twin-shaft concrete mixers and on the mixing phases in order to study the influence of the filling level on the power consumption. The analysis is predominantly experimental, and the tests are presented to study the mechanical behavior of twin-shaft mixers, when the filling level varies in a realistic production range.

In the concrete mixers’ technology, the mixing process can be performed by different types of mixers [1-9], whose behavior is influenced by the mixer geometry and the operating conditions. Since the optimization of the machines and their components is a very important challenge in the machine design [10-11], in scientific literature there is plenty of research studies regarding the improvement of mixers and the analysis of the useful life of the mechanical mixing organs [12-13].

In some research works [14–16] the study is carried out considering the mixture as a generalized Newtonian fluid...