DEM investigation on conveying of non-spherical particles in a screw conveyor--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Sun, H., Ma, H., & Zhao, Y. (2022). DEM investigation on conveying of non-spherical particles in a screw conveyor. Particuology, 65, 17-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2021.06.009

DEM investigation on conveying of non-spherical particles in a screw conveyor

Hongyuan Sun, Huaqing Ma, Yongzhi Zhao^*

Institute of Process Equipment, College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China

10.1016/j.partic.2021.06.009

Volume 65, June 2022, Pages 17-31

Received 9 February 2021, Revised 9 June 2021, Accepted 16 June 2021, Available online 10 July 2021, Version of Record 10 September 2021.

E-mail: yzzhao@zju.edu.cn

Highlights

• Conveying of spherical and non-spherical granular materials is simulated by DEM.

• Effect of particle shape on conveying performance is investigated.

• Possibility of particle breakage in collisions is predicted using collision energy.

• Wear rate of screw blade is obtained by SIEM based on DEM.

Abstract

Screw conveyors are extensively used in modern industry such as metallurgy, architecture and pharmaceutical due to their high-efficiency in the transportation of granular materials. And substantial efforts have been devoted to the study of the screw conveyors. Numerical method is an effective way to study screw conveyor. However, previous studies have mainly focused in the regime of spherical particles while the in-depth investigations for non-spherical particles that should be the most encountered in practical applications are still limited. In view of the above situations, discrete element method (DEM), which has been widely accepted in simulating the discrete systems, is utilized to investigate the conveying process of non-spherical particles in a horizontal screw conveyor, with particles being modeled by super-ellipsoids. In addition, a wear model called SIEM (Shear Impact Energy Model) is incorporated into DEM to predict the wear of screw conveyor. The DEM simulation results demonstrate that the particle shape is influential for the flow behaviors of particles and the wear of conveyor. The conveying performance evaluated quantitatively of both mass flow rate and power consumption is subsequently obtained to investigate the effect of sphericity of particle with different operation parameters. Moreover, particle collision frequency and collision energy consumption are acquired to investigate the possible particle breakage between particles and screw blade. The comparisons between particle–particle collision and particle–wall collision reveal that particles with large shape index have more possibility to be damaged in particle–wall impingement.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

DEM; Screw conveyor; Super-ellipsoid particle; Non-spherical particle; Wear

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