Effect of grinding nozzles pressure on particle and fluid flow patterns in a spiral jet mill

Abstract

Spiral jet mills utilise high-pressure gas jets, which induce particle breakage by collisions. Appropriately angled jets force particles to circulate in dense phase near the wall due to the centrifugal field. Moving radially inwards towards the mill centre, the two-phase dense flow is transformed into a lean phase and fine particles are entrained out by the fluid drag. Here we analyse the effect of grinding nozzles pressure on the particle dynamics and fluid flow by numerical simulation. The average velocity gradient in the radial direction is very steep for low mass loadings, indicative of rapid shearing, but it decreases significantly as the particle mass loading is increased. The dissipated collisional energy, accountable for size reduction, is strongly influenced by the jet penetration through the circulating bed, which in turn depends on the mass loading and operating pressure of grinding gas nozzles. As a result of jet penetration, the grinding gas nozzles pressure becomes less effective at high pressures. The analysis developed here elucidates the coupled effect of mass loading and grinding nozzles pressure on the dissipated collisional energy, which accounts for particle breakage.