A numerical 2D simulation of part motion in vibratory bowl feeders by discrete element method

H. Ashrafizadeh, S. Ziaei-Rad

Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 3303–3314

ABSTRACT

Vibratory bowl feeder is known as one of the major machines in automatic assembly. The feeding parts in a vibratory bowl feeder are experiencing repeated impacts with friction that can be considered as a typical non-linear dynamic problem. In this paper, a 2D numerical model based on discrete element method has been developed to perform a more accurate investigation on the dynamic behavior of a feeding part. In contrast to previous researches, it was assumed that the feeding part was not a point mass, instead, a rectangular shape that can rotate and have three degrees of freedom. By performing the simulation for various vibration amplitudes, a good degree of agreement was observed between calculated data and the experimental data reported in the literature. It was shown that, depending on the vibration amplitude, the graph of mean conveying velocity versus amplitude was composed of three distinct regions. It was found that while the coefficient of friction mostly affects the conveying velocity in sliding regime, it did not have a significant effect on the conveying velocity after a critical point in hopping regime. The mean conveying velocity was dependent on the part shape and vibration angle. The proposed model is capable of demonstrating both the periodic and chaotic behavior of the feeding part.

Keywords:

Vibratory Bowl Feeder; Discrete Element Method

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