Design and analysis of biomimetics based excavator bucket and tooth

Abstract

Within the scope of this paper, various bucket tooth designs and a biomimetic bucket design were created in order to produce a solution on digging efficiency which is one of the general problems of construction machines. These designs were inspired by giant anteater and American badger front claws. The inspiration aspect was diversified by integrating the paw and claw curves of the giant anteater and by bringing American badger claws into the design in different ways. Furhermore, the designed biomimetic bucket alternatives were compared between each other and the standard bucket equipment used in the market by making a computer aided static analysis. The compared criteria were the equivalent stress and total deformation formed on the bucket itself, the excavation equipment and the excavated soil. According to the analysis results, when the bucket tooth named P2 is mounted to the standard bucket, it has 42% lower Von-Mises stress on than standard bucket tooth. Additionally, it is exposed 4,7% less total deformation than standard tooth. Also, in terms of maximum Von-Mises stress formed on the soil model, P2 causes 17,5% greater stress than the standard bucket tooth.