Design and Validation of a Particulate Matter Management System Computationally

Abstract

A cost effective and efficient technology was developed to cleanly remove particulate and fibrous matter from a container while avoiding dispersing the particles in the environment. This paper presents the whole process of computationally developing and validating a system which works based on medium and particles characteristics and can efficiently remove particles in the size range of 5–1000μm from the container. In the presented system a viscous medium was designed to capture and flocculate the particulate matter. One of the factors which will lower the operating costs is that the viscous medium can be easily recycled and the flocculated particles with minimal volume can be disposed of safely. ANSYS FLUENT package was used to simulate our proposed design. The effects of various container geometry, particle size, particle specific gravity, and pressure-velocity boundary conditions on separation efficiency of the design have been studied by using different multiphase models along with viscous and discreet phase models. The result of simulation work led to develop the optimum design, find the maximum and minimum particle size and particulate specific gravity which can be separated while considering the effect of gravity on separation efficiency. Finally the maximum loading capacity of model was determined in a way that particles dispersion into environment was avoided.