Integrated mechanical-electrical modeling of an AC electric mining shovel and evaluation of power requirements during a truck loading cycle

Paper presents an integrated kinematics and dynamic modeling of the swing, hoist and crowd movements of an electric mining shovel driven by regenerative vector controlled ac drives through ropes and gear reducers. The shovel is modeled as a 4-dof articulated mechanical system with three rotating joints and one prismatic joint. Using the developed models a typical truck loading cycle of digging, swinging, dumping and returning is evaluated. The effect of the digging torque is extracted from field records, and speed, position, torque and power of each drive during the entire cycle are reported and analyzed, showing the benefits of regenerative drives.