Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

  • Congratulations cowski on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Determining safe distance from rotating drum

Status
Not open for further replies.

ihopeitworks

Aerospace
Joined
Jul 10, 2018
Messages
23
Location
US
Are there standard equations to determine the distance to keep away from a rotating drum? I have a metal drum that is rotating at a somewhat high RPM. I assume there'd be some calculation on if a piece of this drum, or a fastener on this drum, were to release at the max RPM, what would its trajectory look like. Would this be the proper approach?
 
For vertical axis rotation
vx=Rω
vy=-gt2/2

(Till it hits something.)
 
Calculate the trajectory horizontal distance. You need to know the mass of the loose piece, its velocity at release, and the trajectory angle.

Once the flying loose piece hits the ground or floor how far will it continue to travel?

Best idea, shield the drum.

Ted
 
Spinning (horizontal) is typical production system for concrete pressure pipes, concrete poles for electricity distribution and street lighting, giant concrete piles (marine wharf) : protection is done by RC walls (if in production factory) or steel mesh (if in temporary production site). RPM is usually suitable to reach a centrifugal force of 15-20g : the loose piece is a bullet !!
spinning_JEA_uli5me.jpg

Trieste_03_wyxb63.jpg
 
"the distance to keep away from a rotating drum?"

First cut, is 300 feet an option ?
 
Forget the distance calculation as I personally would enclose the rotating drum, either if possible with a solid enclosure such as a room or to something less formidable such as expanded metal cage. I'll relate this story to you which I did in this forum in the past. In Holyoke, Ma. steam engines were still used roughly 25 years ago. Attached to such an engine was a cast iron flywheel. This flywheel disintegrated and a fragment hit the operator in the chest and flung him against the wall. Fortunately the operator was not killed but was badly bruised. Another piece of the fragments was propelled upward, penetrated the second floor (thick wood planks) of the heavy timber mill and broke thru the outside brick wall and landed on the sidewalk. Safe distance in the case I described had no merit. Anyone walking by those sections that I wrote about were either inside or outside of the building would have been hurt or killed. The operator of the steam engine was very fortunate that a shrapnel did not embed in his chest.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top