Fragmentation of fuel pellets during transport via a belt conveyor: A design of experiment study (Open Access)--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Gilvari, H., van Battum, C. H. H., Farnish, R., Pang, Y., de Jong, W., & Schott, D. L. (2022). Fragmentation of fuel pellets during transport via a belt conveyor: A design of experiment study. Particuology, 66, 29-37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2021.08.007

Fragmentation of fuel pellets during transport via a belt conveyor: A design of experiment study (Open Access)

Hamid Gilvari ^{a c *}, Coen H.H. van Battum ^a, Richard Farnish ^b, Yusong Pang ^a, Wiebren de Jong ^c, Dingena L. Schott ^a

a Section of Transport Engineering and Logistics, Department of Maritime & Transport Technology, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
b Wolfson Centre for Bulk Solids Handling Technology, Faculty of Engineering & Science, University of Greenwich, United Kingdom
c Section of Large Scale Energy Storage (LSE), Department of Process & Energy, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

10.1016/j.partic.2021.08.007

Volume 66, July 2022, Pages 29-37

Received 31 December 2020, Revised 12 July 2021, Accepted 3 August 2021, Available online 2 September 2021, Version of Record 5 November 2021.

E-mail: h.gilvari@tudelft.nl

Highlights

• Fines generation during transport was studied via analysis of variance.

• Number of handling steps and belt inclination were of high significance.

• Fines generation results were compared with those of the benchmark tests.

• Tumbling box method can predict fines generation with high fidelity.

Abstract

This work investigates the proportion of generated fines in a pilot-scale experiment using a belt conveyor and commercial fuel pellets. For this, a belt conveyor with a length of 3.1 m was used and operated at varying conditions: speeds, percentages of material loading on the belt, two combinations of the inclination angle of the belt and the falling height, and a different number of handling steps. We considered a design of experiments approach based on response surface methodology to investigate the effect of different conditions on the potential of fines generation. Moreover, a comparison between the results of the belt conveyor and three common benchmark experimental approaches (tumbling box, rotary impact tester, and mechanical compression test) was made. Results show that the number of handling steps and the combined effect of drop height and inclination angle directly affected the fines generation. However, the tested belt speed range and the level of loading were of lower significance. A polynomial quadratic model was derived based on the regression analysis and showed a high accuracy to predict the proportion of fines. Moreover, the tumbling box method showed good potential to predict the proportion of fines in a belt conveyor when transported several times.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Fuel pellets; Breakage; Belt conveyor; Transport; Design of experiment; Box–Behnken design

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