Optimization of Coal Mining Machine Drum Structure and Microscopic Analysis of Coal Particle Flow

ABSTRACT To solve the problems of low loading performance and insufficient design of the drum of thin‐seam coal mining machine, this paper proposes an innovative coal‐guiding drum design and systematically investigates the effects of different designs on the trajectory, flow structure, and loading efficiency of the coal particles from both macro‐ and microscopic perspectives. At the macroscopic level, the optimized design significantly improves the coal loading efficiency of coal particles by adding circular arc‐shaped coal guide plate and triangular coal guide plate. Simulation experiments show that the average mass flow rate of the coal‐guided drum is increased by 14.1%, and the mass flow rate under high load conditions is increased by 9.1%; with the increase of the rotational speed, the maximum increase of the loading efficiency is 16.96%. At the microscopic level, the optimized design changed the movement direction of coal particles, which led to a 15.85% increase in axial velocity and optimized the flow structure of coal particles. This paper provides a new theoretical basis and technical solution for improving the loading efficiency of thin‐seam coal‐mining machine, which has important practical significance and wide application potential.