Int. J. Mech. Eng. & Rob. Res.

2014 R M Dhawale and S R Wagh, 2014

ISSN 2278 – 0149 www.ijmerr.com

Vol. 3, No. 2, April 2014
© 2014 IJMERR. All Rights Reserved

Review Article

FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF COMPONENTS

OF EXCAVATOR ARM—A REVIEW
R M Dhawale1* and S R Wagh1

*Corresponding Author: R M Dhawale,  [email protected]

Excavators are intended for excavating rocks and soils. It consists of four link members: the
bucket, the stick, the boom and the revolving super structure (upper carriage). The excavator
mechanism must work reliably under unpredictable working conditions. Thus it is very much
necessary for the designers to provide not only a equipment of maximum reliability but also of
minimum weight and cost, keeping design safe under all loading conditions. The two important
factors considered during designing an excavator arm are productivity and fuel consumption.
Also the bucket volume is increased to compensate for the loss in production due to the reduction
in digging force. Increased in bucket volume will also increase the amount material to be fed in
the bucket. The present paper is review of various analysis done on components of excavator
arm and there are various forces affects on components of excavator arm. This paper will be
helpful for those who are working in the field of civil engineering.

Keywords: Excavators, Excavating, Digging force

INTRODUCTION hydraulic excavators are widely used in

An excavator is heavy equipment consisting construction, mining, excavation, and forestry
of an articulated arm (backhoe), bucket and applications (Bhaveshkumar, 2011).
cab mounted on a pivot (a rotating platform, Excavator digs, elevates, swings and
like a Lazy Susan) a top and undercarriage dumps material by the action of its mechanism,
with tracks or wheels. Their design is a natural which consists of boom, arm, bucket and
progression from the steam shovel. hydraulic cylinders. Bucket is used for
Excavators are intended for excavating rocks trenching, in the placement of pipe and other
and soils. Excavators may have a mechanical under-ground utilities, digging basements or
or hydraulic drive. Hydraulic excavators are the water retention ponds, maintaining slopes and
most important group of excavators. Today mass excavation. Due to severe working
1
Faculty of Engineering, University Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Kota Samarahan 94300, Sarawak, Malaysia.

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Int. J. Mech. Eng. & Rob. Res. 2014 R M Dhawale and S R Wagh, 2014

Figure 1: A Typical Hydraulic Backhoe Excavator

conditions, excavator parts are subject to how the structure will be sensitive to dynamical
corrosive effects and high loads. loads. Calculations of dynamical
characteristics are very significant part in
REVIEW OF WORK CARRIED designing of structures in which various
OUT loadings are of utmost priority (Jakub Gottvald,
Jakub Gottvald (2012) evaluated measuring 2011 and Jakub Gottvald, 2012).
of vibrations on a Bucket Wheel Excavator
Bhaveshkumar P Patel done a tremendous
(BWE) during mining process. They have
studied the dynamic behavior of buckets study on kinematics of hydraulic excavator’s
during working under mines. The main aim of backhoe attachment. They have formulated a
this study was on vibration caused and its angle arrangement for safety working of a
effect on the arm assembly of the excavator. excavator arm by using FEM approach. Also
Natural frequencies and shapes are very they have done soil-tool interaction study for
significant characteristic of dynamical behavior digging operation of mini hydraulic excavator.
of structures. Their determination is mostly the Excavators are used primarily to excavate
first step in solving of various dynamical below the natural surface of the ground on
problems. Knowledge of natural frequencies which the machine rests and load it into trucks
and shapes gives us the possibility to assume or tractor. Due to severe working conditions,

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Int. J. Mech. Eng. & Rob. Res. 2014 R M Dhawale and S R Wagh, 2014

excavator parts are subjected to high loads. measures. Prior to testing, the algorithms have
The excavator mechanism must work reliably been verified using the visual simulator.
under unpredictable working conditions. Thus Rahul Mishra and Vaibhav Dewangan
it is very much necessary for the designers to (2013) calculated the capacity of bucket
provide not only a equipment of maximum according to SAEJ296. The bucket
reliability but also of minimum weight and cost, specification is the most superior when
keeping design safe under all loading
conditions. It can be concluded that, force Figure 2: Digging Force
analysis and strength analysis is an important
step in the design of excavator parts. Finite
Element Analysis (FEA) is the most powerful
technique in strength calculations of the
structures working under known load and
boundary conditions (Bhaveshkumar, 2011a
and 2011b; and Bhaveshkumar and Prajapati,
2011 and 2012).
Yang Cheng et al. (2012) studied the
hydraulic excavator from the bodies of the
boom, stick institutions, shovel mechanism
composed of three parts, and construction
machinery is a multi-degree of freedom. Work
carried out in this paper mainly focusing on
the Bionic Study of Hydraulic Excavator
Attachment.
Figure 3: Breakout Force
Juber Hussain Qureshi and Manish Sagar
(2012) provides the platform to understand the
Modeling and FEA of Boom of Backhoe
Loader, which was already carried out by other
researchers for their related applications and
it can be helpful for the development of boom
of backhoe loader.
Dongmok Kim et al. (2009) prepared the
operating algorithm has and verified it in many
test cases. They have used CATIA Manikin
extension to study the human behavior and the
stresses induced in human parts too while
operating the excavator arm. They have also
prepared a control system for the safety

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compared to all other standard model. The forces the backhoe mechanism may failed.
breakout force is calculated by SAEJ1179. The Higher damage rates lead to higher
SAE provide the breakout and digging force. maintenance downtime (lower machine
The optimization is done for various availability) which subtracts from the net
components of assembly and presented in the capacity of the machine to produce (Andrew,
paper. 2002).
Bodur and Zontul (1994) have control the The excavator mechanism must work
cognitive force for the automation of the land reliably under unpredictable working
excavation is developed to include the conditions. Poor strength properties of the
kinematics of the excavator arm. During excavator parts like boom, arm and bucket
digging at a certain point on the excavation limit the life expectancy of the excavator.
trajectory, both the crawler and the rotational Therefore, excavator parts must be strong
super-structure bodies are stationary, and thus enough to cope with caustic working
the kinematic model is reduced to 3 degree conditions of the excavator (Mehmet, 2005).
of freedom. Terrains are of different kind and exerted
sioltool interaction forces may very as per the
FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS terrain condition. Therefore it is challanging job
FEM Introduction to design such a excavator which can work
The Finite Element Method (FEM), sometimes under unpredictable working environment and
referred to as Finite Element Analysis (FEA), also prolong all kind of forces without any kind
is a computational technique used to obtain of failure. For design engineer it is not enough
to provide rubust design but also taking care
approximate solutions of boundary value
of the weight of the attachmet for better
problems in engineering. Simply stated, a
controlling during excavation operation.
boundary value problem is a mathematical
problem in which one or more dependent During the work cycle a backhoe must
variables must satisfy a differential equation accelerate, move at constant speed, and
everywhere within a known domain of decelerate. This time-varying position and
independent variables and satisfy specific orientation of the backhoe is termed as its
conditions on the boundary of the domain. dynamic behavior. Time-varying torques are
Boundary value problems are also sometimes applied at the joints (by the joint actuators)
called field problems. The field is the domain to balance out the internal and external
of interest and most often represents a forces. The internal forces are caused by
physical structure. motion (velocity and acceleration) of links.
Inertial, Coriolis, and frictional forces are
PROBLEM FORMULATION some of the internal forces. The external
This digging task is repetitive in nature and forces are the forces exerted by the
during the operation the entire link mechanism environment. These include the “load” and
working under the dynamical condition. Some gravitational forces. As a result, links and
time due to improper controlling of the dynamic joints have to withstand stresses caused by

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Int. J. Mech. Eng. & Rob. Res. 2014 R M Dhawale and S R Wagh, 2014

force/torque balance across these (Mittal process. The preprocessing step is, quite
and Nagtath, 2008). generally, described as defining the model and
Earth moving process passages huge includes.
challenges to scientist and researchers due • Define the geometric domain of the
to the complexicity of the dynamical problem.
environment, in particular era of design,
• Define the element type(s) to be used.
dynamics and controlling of the excavation
process of an excavator (Bhaveshkumar and • Define the material properties of the
Prajapati, 2011). elements.

A GENERAL PROCEDURE • Define the geometric properties of the

FOR FINITE ELEMENT elements (length, area, and the like).
ANALYSIS • Define the element connectivity’s (mesh the
Certain steps in formulating a finite element model).
analysis of a physical problem are common to
• Define the physical constraints (boundary
all such analyses, whether structural, heat
conditions).
transfer, fluid flow, or some other problem.
These steps are embodied in commercial • Define the loadings.
finite element software packages (some are
Solution
mentioned in the following paragraphs) and
are implicitly incorporated in this text, although During the solution phase, finite element
we do not necessarily refer to the steps software assembles the governing algebraic
explicitly. The steps are described as follows. equations in matrix form and computes the
unknown values of the primary field
Preprocessing variable(s). The computed values are then
The user constructs a model of the part to be used by back substitution to compute
analyzed in which the geometry is divided into additional, derived variables, such as reaction
a number of discrete sub regions, or elements, forces, element stresses, and heat flow. As it
connected at discrete points called nodes. is not uncommon for a finite element model
Certain of these nodes will have fixed to be represented by tens of thousands of
displacements, and others will have prescribed equations, special solution techniques are
loads. These models can be extremely time used to reduce data storage requirements
consuming to prepare, and commercial codes and computation time.
vie with one another to have the most user-
friendly graphical preprocessor” to assist in For static, linear problems, a wave front
this rather tedious chore. Some of these solver, based on Gauss elimination, is
preprocessors can overlay a mesh on a commonly used. While a complete discussion
preexisting CAD file, so that finite element of the various algorithms is beyond the scope
analysis can be done conveniently as part of of this text, the interested reader will find a
the computerized drafting-and-design thorough discussion in the Bathe book.

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Visualization (Post Processing) Excavator’s Backhoe Attachment”, Vol. 3,

In the earlier days of finite element analysis, the No. 3, ISSN: 0975-5462.
user would pore through reams of numbers 2. Bhaveshkumar P Patel (2011b), “Soil-
generated by the code, listing displacements Tool Interaction as a Review for Digging
and stresses at discrete positions within the Operation of Mini Hydraulic Excavator”,
model. It is easy to miss important trends and Vol. 3, No. 3, ISSN: 0975-5462.
hot spots this way, and modern codes use
graphical displays to assist in visualizing the 3. Bhaveshkumar P Patel and Prajapati J M
results. Typical postprocessor display overlays (2012), “Evaluation of Resistive Force
colored contours representing stress levels on Using Principle of Soil Mechanics for Mini
the model, showing a full-field picture. Analysis Hydraulic Backhoe Excavator”,
and evaluation of the solution results is referred International Journal of Machine
to as post processing. Postprocessor software Learning and Computing, Vol. 2, No. 4.
contains sophisticated routines used for sorting, 4. Bhaveshkumar P Patel and Prajapati J M
printing, and plotting selected results from a (2011), “A Review on FEA and
finite element solution. Optimization of Backhoe Attachment in
Hydraulic Excavator”, IACSIT
CONCLUSION International Journal of Engineering and
The main objective of this work is to carry out Technology, Vol. 3, No. 5.
the modeling and FE analysis of an excavator,
various software used by researchers like 5. Dongmok Kim, Jongwon Kim, Kyouhee
PRO-ENGINEER, CATIA, ANSYS, according Lee, Cheolgyu Park, Jinsuk Song and
to their ease of user friendliness and accuracy Deuksoo Kang N (2009), “Excavator Tele-
of results. The mini hydraulic backhoe Operation System Using a Human Arm”,
excavator attachment is developed to perform www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon
excavation task for light duty construction work. 6. Jakub Gottvald (2012), “Analysis of
Based on static force analysis finite element Vibrations of Bucket Wheel Excavator
analysis is carried out for individual parts as Schrs1320 During Mining Process”, FME
well as the whole assembly of the backhoe Transactions, Vol. 40, pp. 165-170.
excavator with and without consideration of
7. Jakub Gottvald (2011), “Measuring and
welding. It is clearly depicted that the stresses
Comparison of Natural Frequencies of
produced in the parts of the backhoe excavator
Bucket Wheel Excavators Sch Rs. 1320
attachment are within the safe limit of the
and K 2000”, ISBN: 978-1-61804-022-0.
material stresses for the case of with and
without consideration of welding. 8. Juber Hussain Qureshi and Manish Sagar
(2012), “The Finite Element Analysis of
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9. Rahul Mishra and Vaibhav Dewangan 10. Yang Cheng, Li Yinwu, Huang Kui, Wang
(2013), “Optimization of Component of Jingchun and Zhou Meng (2012), “Bionic
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