2010 Third International Conference on Information and Computing
Modal Characteristics and Finite Element Analysis of Screen Box for
Ultra-heavy Vibrating Screen
Guo Nianqin Guo Sheng Luo Leping
School Of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering
Jiangxi University Of Science And Technology
Ganzhou, Jiangxi, China 341000
Email:nfgnq@126.com
Abstract—The model of ultra-heavy vibrating screen has been
established by using finite element analysis software ANSYS,
the stress distribution of the screen box has been revealed
under static load, meanwhile, analyses dynamic characteristics
of the screen box structure for ultra-heavy vibrating screen,
then, has gotten the low order natural frequency and vibration
mode of the screen box, and the stress distributions and
deformation in various parts of the screen box under rated
load, which provided a necessary basis for the design
improvement and dynamic strength study about the screen
box. In allusion to the cracks of the bottom screen frame and
side panels, according to the stress analysis conclusion,
improve the screen box structure and change the original
welding connection of the bottom screen shelf steel pipe with
the side panels into flange, and this improvement gets good
results in the field.
Keywords- Ultra-heavy vibrating screen, screen box, FEM,
Modal characteristics.
I. INTRODUCTION
The ultra-heavy vibrating screen consists eccentric-block
exciter, screen box, motor, base plate and support device,
which have the characters of simple structure, smooth
operation, reliable work and so on. The Screen box structure
takes the welding connection which is strong and reliable. It
is showed in Figure.1.Besides eccentricity in the central part,
each ends of the main axis are fixed with eccentric wheels.
Through triangular belt, the motor rotates the exciter
eccentric block at a high speed. The rotator eccentric block
generates a great centrifugal force, exciting the screen box to
do circular movement with certain amplitude. The spring is
used to support the screen box and reduce the power passed
to the base while the screen is in operation [1].
II. SCREEN BOX MODEL
Model the 2YAC2460 ultra-heavy vibrating screen as the
research object. There are two ways to establish finite
element model of the screen box: model in CAD, then lead
the solid model into ANSYS, which not only needs a long
time to model, but also takes a long time to compute, and
even could not get results; The other is modeling in ANSYS
unit to establish the finite element model of screen box. This
method can build models quickly, compute fast and
accurately[2][3].
A. The finite element model of screen box
In order to accurately and reasonably simulate the screen
box, shell63, beam188, combin14, mass21 are used to
978-0-7695-4047-4/10 $26.00 © 2010 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/ICIC.2010.343
simulate side panels, up screen frame, bottom frame, springs
and exciter respectively. The Unit selection is showed in
Table 1.
To note that, after finished the cell division of the grid,
there must be common nodes to transfer load between the
junction of different thickness side panels, the junction of the
side panel with the beams and the side panel with the
strengthening sinew, otherwise, the locations between the
plate elements as well as between the plate element and the
beam element will occur separation in calculation process,
leading to inaccurate results, and the failure of model
establishment. Side panel is formed by a number of surfaces,
and the boundary line between surfaces is the strengthen
beam. The boundary line intersection of surfaces is the
connecting point of the beam to the side panels. After this
cell division of the grid finished in the model establishment,
no matter through the welding connection or flange
connection, in this model there are public nodes to represent
them. In the side panel model of the screen box, the bolts and
flange whose quality and stiffness have very small influence
to the sieve box system, if established in the model, would
bring much trouble in cell division of the grid, and
effectively increase the number of units, therefore ignore
them. After the model handle, we get the finite element
model of screen box as showed in figure 2:
B. Calculating conditions and screen containers force
analysis
In the course of work, the screen box bears gravity, the
exciting force, the spring restoring force and damping force.
As for the vibrating screen is an inertia screen, in the
vibration mainly the inertia force generated from the exciter
eccentric mass when rotating is playing the leading role.
Spring restoring force and damping force are negligible,
therefore, in case of the screen Strength analysis, the screen
box suffers a payload of gravity and the exciting force. The
exciting force generated by eccentric block rotation:
F = ∑ (mi r j )ω 2
Which is equivalent to concentration acting on both sides of
the side panel, then decomposed in x, y direction, the
exciting force was gotten:
Fx = F cos ωt , Fy = F sin ωt
For the simulation of the exciter, it make use of the rigid
regional set in ANSYS, regard the exciter as a point mass
element, and respectively establish point quality unit in the
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rotation center of the four groups of eccentric wheels, then
use these four-point quality unit modules to stand for each
eccentric quality, and take it as the master node, set 16 nodes
at the location on the side of the screen box where the exciter
is installed, simulate the exciter and the flange on the side
panels as the slave nodes. Through establishing rigid region
command in the ANSYS, connect the master node and the
slave nodes. The two excitation eccentric shafts of the
circular vibrating screen move with same rotation speed, and
its resultant force fit sine. Then decomposed the exciting
force along horizontal and vertical directions and calculate
the quality of eccentric shaft, apply these averagely to the
nodes around connected holes through which the exciter is
connected with the side panels.
The angular velocity of vibration is determined by the
motor and the transmission ratio of the size pulley:
rmin 286
n = ndynamo = 1460 × = 800r / min
rmax 520
2πn 2π × 800
ω= = ≈ 83.7 rad / s
60 60
Where Eccentric distance: r=107.5mm, Eccentric weight:
m=209Kg.
C. Boundary condition
When conducting finite element analysis for the screen box,
in order to gain a accurate result, it is necessary to bound the
boundary conditions. For example, simplify the coil spring
for supporting as the boundary element for tension and
compression spring, sequentially determine the boundary
conditions to the computational model. Besides use the
spring-damper element in ANSYS to simulate rubber
springs, the unit connect with a short screen box beams node
at one end while is fully constrained at the other end.
III. SCREEN BOX STATIC ANALYSIS
In the ANSYS software, when set the type of analysis to
be static, the Solver program will automatically solve the
model[4], and the results of solving will be showed in the
post-processor post1.
According to the shaker stress cloud figure under static
load, we get known the bending stress which the steel pipe of
the under beam of the vibrating Screen beams bear is the
maximum stress of the whole screen box. The location on the
side panels where bear the greatest force are the bottom
around the hole of exciter, the sinew junction and the
junction of the bottom beam pipe and the side panel
respectively, and the maximum stress is 31.7Mpa. From the
actual running situation of the vibrating screen, it would
generate crack in the bottom of the exciter, sometimes in the
connections of the side panels with the beams. Under the
eccentric excitation force, it creates concentrated stress
between the pipe and the cross piece, therefore, crack was
crated under the work of welding residual stress, which is fit
for the actual situation.
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IV. SCREEN BOX MODAL ANALYSIS
As the vibrating screen depends on the rapid vibration
screen body to carry out work, therefore, there is an
operating frequency. If the frequency happens to be at or too
close to the natural frequency, it would occur Resonance
phenomenon. When the resonance occurs, theoretically the
amplitude is infinite, in that case, the vibrating screen
structure would be destroyed quickly, and also create a great
noise. Besides, under the action of the exciting force with
cyclical changes, the screen body would have changes in
displacement and stress response. Some locations, in the
operating frequency, may bear a great response or excess
stress, and became vulnerable to fatigue or failure. For
example, through the field experience of using large-scale
vibrating screen, it can be found that the main fault of the
vibrating screen is the rupture of the cross piece, therefore, it
is not enough to only do the static analysis for the screen.
When do the dynamics analysis to the large screen, it should
be conducted in three areas. Firstly, do the modal analysis
and in accordance with its natural frequency and shape
mode, evaluate the vibrating screen and modify it to avoid its
natural frequency is equal to or near the operating frequency.
Then do dynamic stress analysis, through the cloud chat of
the Stress distribution and the displacement, observe if there
is concentration of a too large stress in the screen body
during working. Finally, since the vibrating screen is
working under the exciting force whose frequency is fixed, it
is necessary to do harmonic response analysis for it and
consider the harmonic response situation to avoid harmonic
resonance response [5][6].
Modal analysis is used to determine the vibrating
screen’s vibration characteristics which are the natural
frequencies and shape modes, so it is an important step in the
dynamic design. The typical basic equation of non-damped
modal analysis is the classical feature value problem:
[K ][Φ i ] = ωi 2 [M ][Φ i ]
Where K is Stiffness matrix, Φi is the vibration-based
vector in the first I order modes, ωi is the natural frequency
in the first I order modal M is Mass matrix.
Modal analysis consists of four steps: modeling, applied
load and solve, modal expansion, results-view and post-
processing. The model can be the finite element model
established in this section [7]; the only one effective
"payload" is the zero-displacement constraints in the
vibrating screen modal analysis, while the other loads are
ignored in the mode extraction. In addition, the orders to
solve is also need to be set up, that is to solve how many
orders’ natural frequency and the mode expansion is to write
the vibration mode into the outcome document. After doing
that the mode shape can be observed in the post-processor.
Finally, look at the natural frequency and the vibration mode
of the vibrating screen model, while the vibration mode can
be observed in the form of animation [8]
In the ANSYS software, the natural frequency values of
sieve box in the top 30-order are solved and showed in table
2. Seen from table 4.5, the frequency close to the screen box:
Operating frequency f (0) =800/60=13.33HZ
It is the natural frequency in the 25th, the 26th, the 27th
order. In the ANSYS, vibration mode diagram with the order
natural frequency can be obtained by extending the vibration
mode. Figure4 are the vibration pattern map of the screen
box in the 26th order.
From the table 2 which lists the modal frequency and
these modal shape maps, it can be seen that the mode
formation in the 26th-order is mostly consistent with the
actual motion state and its natural frequency is also in line
with the actual. All of these illustrate the accuracy of the
model. Furthermore, the modal frequencies adjacent to the
natural frequency in the 26thorder are over 10% above the
work frequency. For the vibrating screen works beyond the
resonant, therefore its operating frequency is far away from
the natural frequency. These show the Vibrating screen
design is reasonable. Seen from vibration mode in the 27th
order, the shaker reverse horizontally, so in the practical
work, install 4 damping springs in the lower part of the sieve
box to buffer the stress and displacement.
V. STRUCTURE IMPROVEMENT
From figure 3 it can be seen that the location bear the
greatest force are the bottom around the hole of exciter, the
junction of the bottom beam pipe and the side panel. In order
to effectively increase the local rigidity, we do some
corresponding improvements to the product and change the
bottom beam pipe and the side connection into a flange
connection.
Under the eccentric excitation force, it crates a
concentration of a vertical ever-changing stress in medial
side of the welding seams where connect the beam pipe and
the side panels. Under the long-term effect of the welding
residual stress and the concentration of alternating stress, the
endpoint inside the weld medial would easily crack, then the
crack would gradual develop outward until the welding seam
are totally cracked. Seen from the field operation, the break
of the screen frame pipe has been an important reason for
affecting the life of the screening machine. In the product,
we improved the connection program, as shown in Figure5
and Figure 6, changing the original welding program into a
flange connection. The steel pipe of the whole screen frame
is original welded with the channel steel, but its large
welding stress cause the connection of the bottom screen
frame and side panels to easily deform and distort, after
Long-term use it even makes the steel pipes and the side
panels crack, so we choose to weld a single steel pipe with a
flange, then connected with the side through a high strength
bolt. These 9 pipes and flanges get a accurate size after
getting processed, and connect with the side without
distortion. When the steel components withstand the tension
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and bending, the flange and the side connected into one unit
through the high-strength bolts. This program ensures the
reliable connection between the shear cell and the frame.
These improvements get good results in the field application
with no crack phenomenon and longer lifetime.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
According to finite element analysis of static mechanics,
we get the stress distribution of sieve boxes, find the
weaknesses in the structure of the sieve box and improve
them. Using flange to connect the bottom screen frame with
the side panels, the field use prove that it causes no crack,
and effectively extends the life of screening machines.
through the modal analysis, we obtain the natural
frequency and vibration mode of the screen box in the top 30
orders, the operating frequencies are far away from the
natural frequency(over 10% beyond),and the motor
parameters chosen are reasonable.
The vibrating screen structure has a relatively dense
distribution of low-mode, and its vibration is a rigid-body
vibration. When in the vicinity of the excitation frequency,
the whole structure is mainly doing horizontal swing,
pitching vibration and to torsion vibration. Because both the
bottom of the material discharge port and the top of the feed
inlet have large deformation, we can locally install
strengthen tendons.
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 TABLE.1 UNITS AND ITS REAL CONSTANT TABLE.2 THE NATURAL FREQUENCY VALUES OF 30-ORDERS

Ordinal Unit type Real Constant Remarks Order 1 2 3 4 5 6

Frequency 0.0000 0.89E-4 0.13E-1 1.9026 3.0205 3.3942
Thickness Two kind of
1 Shell63 Order 7 8 9 10 11 12
0.008 0.012 thickness

steel pipe cross Frequency 4.1419 4.5284 5.1326 5.3801 5.6067 6.4474
2 Beam188
section Order 13 14 15 16 17 18

3 Mass21 100kg Eccentric weight Frequency 6.8826 7.8218 7.8602 8.1481 9.1087 9.1729
Order 19 20 21 22 23 24
4 Combin14 300N/mm Spring stiffness Frequency 9.3476 9.4112 9.4419 9.5370 9.8154 10.128
Order 25 26 27 28 29 30
Frequency 10.208 14.658 15.088 18.741 19.37 21.630

Figure 1.entity model of screen box Figure 2 finite element model of screen box

Figure 3 screen box’s stress cloud under the static load Figure 4vibration mode diagram of the screen box in the 26th order

Figure5. The original welding of bottom screen frame Figure 6 The flange connection of bottom screen frame

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