Preliminary simulation of the GAP mechanical system for oil sands haulage

Abstract

Kinematic synthesis and dynamic simulation of the Ground Articulating Pipeline (GAP) system has been carried out with Automatic Dynamic Analysis of Mechanical Systems (ADAMS) software. A kinematics model of the GAP mechanism has been built based on the kinematics of machinery. The equations of Newton-Euler dynamics were employed as the computational framework for the dynamic simulation of the system. A virtual prototype has been created and simulated in the ADAMS environment. The simulation has been integrated with real time 3-D system for detailed and responsive interactions with dynamic virtual environments. The results of the kinematics synthesis showed that the GAP system consists of 14 pipe arms and seven master carriages to accommodate a shovel advance of 400 m per week. The results of the dynamic simulation showed that the GAP system meets the operating requirement of each slave master displacement of 60 m with good operating characteristics.

Keywords:

• Ground articulating pipeline
• Dynamic modelling
• Virtual prototype
• Mechanical system simulation

Acknowledgement

The authors express their gratitude to AERI/COURSE and Syncrude Canada Limited for the financial support and field data for this study.