Qualitative Experimental Behavior of Oscillatory Gutter Brushes

Abstract

Cutting and flicking128 brushes are two types of gutter brushes that sweep the debris that lies in the gutter towards the main sweeping mechanism of a street sweeper. As most of the debris is commonly found in the gutter, the operation of gutter brushes is important. In this work, the concept of oscillatory gutter brushes is studied. Qualitative experimental tests are carried out to determine frequencies at which enhanced vibration patterns of the bristles of cutting and flicking128 brushes are obtained. The brushes are rotated at variable angular speed, first in free rotation, and then against a concrete test bed. The findings are analyzed in the light of previous theoretical results. The results suggest that bristle vibrations may be excited at the first natural frequency of the bristles for both brush types. Notably, the trends indicate that when the frequency is a third of the first natural frequency, a resonant condition seems to occur. The results also indicate that an equivalent length for bristle vibration has to be calculated, due to the way in which the bristles are clamped into the mounting board. This equivalent length is necessary for the comparison between the experimental and analytical results. These tests are useful in the determination of frequencies that may be potentially helpful during sweeping.

Effectiveness of oscillatory gutter brushes in removing street sweeping waste

“…A detailed discussion of the reasons of increased bristle vibrations at these frequencies is provided in Vanegas-Useche et al (2008b), based on theoretical findings (Vanegas-Useche et al, 2008a.…”

“…The brushes were rotated in free flight and also against a concrete test bed for different penetrations, D, and angles of attack, b. The results of these experiments were reported in a previous work (Vanegas-Useche et al, 2008b).…”

Dynamic Analysis of a Horizontal Oscillatory Cutting Brush

“…Finally, the novel concept of oscillatory brushes was studied, i.e., brushes that rotate at variable speed. Cutting and F128 brushes were studied by means of qualitative and quantitative experimental tests [Vanegas-Useche, Abdel-Wahab and Parker (2008b); Vanegas-Useche, Abdel-Wahab and Parker (2015b)] and analytical models [Vanegas-Useche, Abdel-Wahab and Parker drawbacks, alternative methods and variations, such as hybrid FEM and meshfree techniques, have been proposed to solve structural and engineering problems. In particular, Smoothed Finite Element Methods (S-FEM) have recently been proven to be a valued combination of FEM with meshfree methods, addressing effectively many of the limitations of FEM by using some meshfree techniques; for example, S-FEM are more robust when dealing with huge deformations and mesh distortions and tend to exhibit higher accuracy and higher convergence rates in displacement [Zeng and Liu (2018)].…”