Application of stiffened plate technique to reduce crack propagation in spring plate of girth gear connector in rotary cement kiln

摘要

This paper shows the effect of stiffened plate to the stress concentration and the stress intensity factor of crack on the spring plate. The spring plate has cracked at its base after several years of operation in a kiln in the Semen Padang cement factory. In order to obtain the cause of crack appearing and effect of stiffened plate on spring plate, the finite element model is used to analyze the stress distribution and the stress intensity factor of the crack. In conclusion, the additional stiffened plate is able significantly to reduce the stress concentration and stress intensity factor of crack for both models. The stress concentration can be reduced from 50 to 57 percent with addition of stiffened plate. Meanwhile, the stress intensity factor can be reduced from 63 to 67 percent when spring plate using the addition of stiffened plate. It reveals that the implementation of additional stiffened plate on spring plate has an important role to avoid the crack growth.