Nowadays pelletizing drums are widely used in the steel industry. These units are characterized by high endurance and low cost of maintenance. However, use and control of these units in the process of coarsening have a number of issues. For most of the cases pelletizing drums are “black box” and control accuracy can not be estimated exactly. It is explained by low existing theoretical basis of this production process. Particularly it is tied up with the variability of the bulk materials (charges) parameters supplied to the unit. Overcome of this issues can be reached with development of intelligent control systems for drum pelletizing machines. Main requirement for such systems is possibility to level or consider the effect of charges properties variability in control. However, it is necessary to study the behavior of bulk materials inside the units. Visual assessment of pelletization does not allow to evaluate the ongoing physical processes. Development of mathematical and numerical models can help studying the process and take a lot of parameters into account including charges properties and even interaction with water. But the adequacy of the resulting models also has to be clarified using physical devices to record or capture bulk materials behavior inside the units. This research proposes a DEM simulation test of the concept for bulk material behavior control through the recognition of the mixture movement fragments using special capsules. This part is dedicated to the simulation model set up and extracting the particles trajectories for further processing.

DEM parameters calibration is the most important step in preparing a DEM model. At the same time, the lack of a universal approach to DEM parameters calibration complicates this process. The paper presents the author’s approach to creating a universal calibration approach based on the physical meaning of the friction coefficients and conducting symmetrical experiments at full scale and in a simulation, as well as the implementation of the approach in the form of a physical test rig. Several experiments were carried out to determine the DEM parameters of six material–boundary pairs. The resulting parameters were adjusted using a refinement experiment. The results confirmed the adequacy of the developed approach, as well as its applicability in various conditions. The limitations of both the approach itself and its specific implementation in the form of a test rig were identified.

The article presents the results of experimental investigations of the magnitude and nature of change loads drive of mine shuttle car VS-30 used to deliver ore to extraction chambers in potash mines. The design of program-recording complex "VATUR" developed by employees of the department "Mining Electrical Engineering" Perm National Research Polytechnic University. In the investigation of operating modes of the drive of self-propelled mine wagons were carried out measurements and recording the instantaneous values of voltage and current of electric motors, calculated values of active and apparent power consumed by the motor pump stations and bottom conveyors of mine shuttle car. Carried out investigations modes of operation and changing loads on the units and details of the tram drive. It is proved that the operation of electric motors of the mine shuttle cars increased characterized by a systematic overload. Outdated system controlling the rotational speed of shafts drive motor gives rise to considerable dynamic loads on components of mechanical transmissions for shuttle cars. Significant loss of time causing the reduction in technical performance longwall set of equipment of potash mines arises during the maneuvering operations and unloading ore from shuttle cars. Based on the analysis of the change of loading drives and statistics of dangerous failures were justified the technical solutions to improve the reliability of mine shuttle car. The recommendations to increase the efficiency of transporting potash in the longwall set of equipment, improving maneuverability of self-propelled cars and reduce downtime for unloading are given.