Research on the optimization of drum structure based on virtual prototyping technology

Drums are the core working mechanism of the coal mining machine for coal mining. The structural design level of the drum is crucial for mining efficiency and safety production. Traditional design methods not only have long design cycles and high costs, but also limited design capabilities. This study used computer numerical simulation methods to establish coupled models for drum cutting complex coal seams, which was used to obtain the working performance of drums with different structures. By fitting the comprehensive performance evaluation function of the drum, the optimal structural parameters are obtained through the improved Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithms (NSGA-II). Taking into account both technical and economic factors, the optimal helix angle is ultimately determined to be 18°, the optimal installation angle is 45°, and the optimal cutting distance is 71 mm. Through experiments, it has been proven that the performance of the optimized drum has significantly improved. Specifically, the average cutting resistance has been reduced by 12.72%, the load fluctuation coefficient has been reduced by 9.81%, the cutting specific energy consumption has been reduced by 2.85%, and the coal loading rate has been increased by 9.59%, providing a reference for the optimization design of the shearer drum structure.