With a history spanning a century in the construction industry, excavators have become integral to various engineering projects. Simulating excavation tasks not only provides insights into the performance of excavators but also facilitates the optimisation of bucket structure. Modelling the machinery-material system poses a challenge, but this can be overcome by implementing co-simulation of multibody dynamics (MBD) and discrete element method (DEM) using the functional mock-up interface (FMI). In this work, the excavator model is built with Modelica-based mechanical-hydraulic integration modelling, and GPU-based DEM is adopted to realise industrial-scale material simulation. We examined excavator performance when using different buckets and trajectories in various stockpile scenarios, with material density, size, cohesion, and shape varied. Variations in performance indicators such as in-bucket material volume, power consumption, particle-bucket interaction force, and bucket wear were analysed. Consequently, suggestions are provided for operators regarding operation and bucket selection to achieve highly-productive, low-consumption, and less bucket wear.

Multibody dynamics; Discrete element method; Co-simulation; Hydraulic excavator