ESTIMATING THE POWER DRAW OF GRIZZLY FEEDERS USED IN CRUSHING–SCREENING PLANTS THROUGH SOFT COMPUTING ALGORITHMS

Abstract

In this study, the power draw (P) of several grizzly feeders used in the Turkish Mining Industry (TMI) is investigated by considering the classification and regression tree (CART), random forest (RF) and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) algorithms. For this purpose, a comprehensive field survey is performed to collect quantitative data, including power draw (P) of some grizzly feeders and their working conditions such as feeder width (W), feeder length (L), feeder capacity (Q), and characteristic feed size (F80). Before applying the soft computing methodologies, correlation analyses are performed between the input parameters and the output (P). According to these analyses, it is found that W and L are highly associated with P. On the other hand, Q is moderately correlated with P. Consequently, numerous soft computing models were run to estimate the P of the grizzly feeders. Soft computing analysis results demonstrate no superiority between the performances of RF and CART models. The RF analysis results indicate that the W is necessary for evaluating P for grizzly feeders. On the other hand, the ANFIS-based predictive model is found to be the best tool to estimate varying P values, and it satisfies promising results with a correlation of determination value (R2) of 0.97. It is believed that the findings obtained from the present study can guide relevant engineers in selecting the proper motors propelling grizzly feeders.