Abstract: To accurately estimate the damage of chute under ore impact, a theoretical model is developed for describing the damage of the chute considering the influential factors of chute damage. The impulse distributions induced by ore impact on chute are obtained with MATLAB. Based on the MADIS-FLAC3D data coupling technique, a numerical model of chute is developed and used to analyze the distribution of chute damage. Combining the capacity monitoring system (CMS) and the 3D software SURPAC, the 3D information relating to chute collapse has been effectively determined and visualized, and the proposed procedure is validated. It is shown that (1) the range of impact calculated with the proposed model is at the elevations from -265.83 m to -292.28 m; and in this zone, the impact momentum increases firstly, then decreases, and reaches its peak value 13.52×103 N?S at the elevation -272.88 m; (2) the displacement occurs in the zone from the elevations -264.12 m to -294.88 m under the ore impact, where a plastic zone is formed, indicating that the stability of surrounding rock in this section has been degraded; (3) the location of the maximum measured displacement is close to the position of the maximum cross-section of collapse area from the monitored results. The shape of the most serious collapse area of chute from monitoring agrees with the plastic zone determined by the numerical analysis.

Key words: chute, impact loading, damage model, numerical analysis