A dynamic coal quantity detection system for conveyor belt based on ultrasonic array

Dynamic coal quantity detection for conveyor belt is the foundation and key to achieving energy consumption optimization measures for multi-stage belt conveyors such as coal flow starting and automatic speed regulation. The existing coal quantity detection methods based on ultrasonic have low precision. Multiple ultrasonic sensors are susceptible to interference. In order to solve the above problems, a dynamic coal quantity detection system for conveyor belts based on ultrasonic array is designed. Using the principle of ultrasonic ranging, the coal material height corresponding to the detection points of each ultrasonic sensor array element is detected in real-time through an ultrasonic array. The cross-section slicing method is used to calculate the total volume of coal material passing through the conveyor belt per unit time. The real-time coal flow and total coal quantity of the conveyor belt are calculated based on the coal material stacking density. In order to reduce the crosstalk of the same frequency acoustic wave and the error caused by the attenuation of ultrasonic waves in harsh underground environments, 10 ultrasonic sensor arrays with different center frequencies are selected and arranged in a 2×5 linear array form. The collected coal height data is compensated through multiple rows of ultrasonic sensors to improve the accuracy of coal height data detection. The analysis results of real-time performance indicate that the ultrasonic array detection speed theoretically meets the coal quantity detection requirements of a belt conveyor with a belt speed of 5 m/s. The experimental results show that the average relative errors of regular material volume detection are 4.99% and 5.16% at belt speeds of 0.125 m/s and 0.170 m/s, respectively. Under simulated actual operating conditions, the average relative error of coal quantity detection is 5.56%. In the low belt speed state, the system has a measurement accuracy of over 94% for regular materials and coal. It basically achieves real-time and accurate detection of the dynamic coal quantity of the conveyor belt, meeting the coal quantity detection requirements of the belt conveyor.