Remaining Lifetime Assessment of Bucket Wheel Excavator’s Boom Structure by Using Non-destructive Method

The bucket wheel excavators (BWE), when operating in faces with hard intrusions (rock structures with increased cutting resistance) are submitted to loads exceeding those arising during the operation in normal conditions. The most vulnerable structural element of the BWE from the point of view of these loads is the boom. The unexpected occurrence of hard formations produces shocks and vibrations, their unwanted effect being sudden failures of the constitutive elements and, in long term, fatigue, which increases the vulnerability of the mentioned structural element. In the paper we present the results obtained regarding the fatigue and remaining lifetime assessment using a new method, issued from the researches performed in the frame of BEWEXMIN project