# Digging Performance and Stress Characteristic of the Excavator Bucket
## 3 Analysis of ADAMS-EDEM Coupling Simulation Results
### Influence of Bucket Structure Parameters on Excavation Characteristics  
In order to explore the influence of the bucket's structural parameters on the digging resistance, filling rate and energy consumption of the bucket, the bucket's structural parameters were changed, and the digging resistance, filling rate and energy consumption of the bucket were compared under different structural parameters. The original model of the main structure of the bucket is shown in Figure 9. Changes in the cutting angle, flare angle and angle of throat of the bucket directly change the bucket's capacity, and so modify the three bucket structural parameters. In addition, the bucket needs to be connected to the bucket rod through the ear plate, and the excavation resistance of the bucket is transmitted to the ear plate, which can easily cause deformation of the ear plate. Therefore, the structural parameters of the ear plate were also used as an exploration variable. The  
Figure 8: Digging resistance in different areas of the bucket. Figure 10: _Cont_. Figure 10: _Cont._  
In Figure 10(a1) Digging resistance of different Cutting angle, as the cutting angle of the bucket increases, the digging resistance of the bucket also increases correspondingly. When the cutting angle reaches 35\({}^{\circ}\), the digging resistance reaches the maximum value. As can be seen from Figure 9b, the cutting angle is the angle between the bucket teeth and its speed direction. The larger the cutting angle, the more material flows into the bucket along the cutting edge level, and therefore, the higher the filling rate of the bucket. As can be seen from Figure 10(c1) Energy consumption of different Cutting angle, when the cutting angle is 35\({}^{\circ}\), the energy consumption per unit mass of materials in the bucket during mining also reaches its highest. As shown in Figure 10(b1) Filling rate of different Cutting angle, the change in the angle of the bucket throat has little influence on the digging resistance. As can be seen from Figure 10(b2) Filling rate of different Angle of throat, the larger the angle of the throat, the higher the bucket filling rate. When the angle of the throat is 62.3\({}^{\circ}\), the bucket filling rate is at its highest. As can be seen from Figure 10(c2) Energy consumption of different Angle of throat, when the angle of the bucket throat reaches 62.3\({}^{\circ}\), the energy consumption per unit mass of materials excavated by the bucket is at its lowest. Considering the digging resistance of the bucket, the filling rate and the energy consumption per unit mass of the bucket, increasing the angle of the bucket throat can not only obtain a higher filling rate, but it can also minimize the energy consumption per unit mass of the bucket. It can be observed from Figure 10(a3) Digging resistance of different flare angle and Figure 10(c3) Energy consumption of different flare angle that the change of the bucket flare angle has little influence on the digging resistance, but has a large influence on the bucket filling rate. The greater the bucket flare angle, the greater the material quality of the bucket excavation. However, the bucket capacity also increases, that is, the bucket filling rate has no clear relationship with the flare angle of the bucket. As can be seen from Figure 10(c3) Energy consumption of different Flare angle, the energy consumption per unit mass of mining materials is the highest when the bucket flare angle is 10\({}^{\circ}\). In Figure 6, during the whole excavation process, the bucket ear plate does not have direct contact with the material, and the changes in the bucket's ear plate structural parameters do not change the articulated position of the bucket rod and the bucket. So, the bucket's movement trajectory parameters do not change.