Investigation of the Effect of Operational Factors on Conveyor Belt Mechanical Properties

Abstract

This paper aims to present the effect of specific operational factors (temperature and humidity) on the selected mechanical properties of a conveyor belt. The tests were conducted in a climatic chamber, simulating the effect of both minus and plus temperatures −30 °C to 80 °C (243 K to 353 K) at specific humidity, and in a thermal shock chamber where a varying number of ageing cycles was applied for a specific range of thermal shocks. Six different tests in the climatic chamber and four different tests in a thermal shock chamber were conducted. The results of the climatic chamber tests demonstrate that many strength parameters have undesired values at a temperature of 10 °C (283 K) and 80 °C (353 K) at a relative humidity of 80%. Interestingly, the results revealed that tensile strength, tensile modulus and yield strength are higher at below 0 °C temperature than at above 0 °C temperature. For example, comparing the temperature −30 °C (243 K) and +30 °C (303 K) obtained a difference of tensile modulus of nearly 10%, and comparing the temperature −30 °C (243 K) and +10 °C (283 K) the differences were 22%.