Abstract
There is hardly any industry that does not use transport, storage, and processing of particulate solids in its production process. In the past, all device designs were based on empirical relationships or the designer’s experience. In the field of particulate solids, however, the discrete element method (DEM) has been increasingly used in recent years. This study shows how this simulation tool can be used in practice. More specifically, in dealing with operating problems with a rotary cooler which ensures the transport and cooling of the hot fly ash generated by combustion in fluidized bed boilers. For the given operating conditions, an analysis of the current cooling design was carried out, consisting of a non-standard intake pipeline, which divides and supplies the material to two rotary coolers. The study revealed shortcomings in both the pipeline design and the cooler design. The material was unevenly dispensed between the two coolers, which combined with the limited transport capacity of the coolers, led to overflowing and congestion of the whole system. Therefore, after visualization of the material flow and export of the necessary data using DEM design measures to mitigate these unwanted phenomena were carried out.
Highlights
Market pressure forces companies to develop increasingly optimized products with regard to transport efficiency, environmental impacts, and material and labor savings
To propose innovative processes, industries require the use of sophisticated simulation techniques. Some of these are based in the discrete element method (DEM), which use virtual models to simulate the dynamic flow of particulate solids [1] in transport, handling, storage, and process systems [2]
In the field of storage, it is possible to use numerical methods for solving complex tasks of flow of particulates from silos with respect to acting wall pressures, speed profiles, and particle shape [12]. It can be very challenging for some companies to design the correct pipeline for their equipment
Summary
Market pressure forces companies to develop increasingly optimized products with regard to transport efficiency, environmental impacts, and material and labor savings. To propose innovative processes, industries require the use of sophisticated simulation techniques. Some of these are based in the discrete element method (DEM), which use virtual models to simulate the dynamic flow of particulate solids [1] in transport, handling, storage, and process systems [2]. It has become a useful tool to analyze industrial processes [3] It makes it possible to test the basic functionality of devices [4] and their structural configurations before prototyping or to optimize existing equipment, resulting in considerable economic, time, labor, and material savings. One of the challenges of modeling the processes of particulate solids is the creation of a mathematical model for the bulk material itself, whose behavior is influenced by a great number of factors. The behavior of powders and bulk materials depends on external and internal factors that influence their bulk
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