Electrostatic charging of single granules by repeated sliding along inclined metal plates

Abstract

In this work, repeated sliding tests for single granules were investigated for their electrostatics generation. Several factors were considered including granule length-ratio, sliding face shape, sliding times, sliding area, sliding velocity, front-facing edge, plate inclined angle and humidity. Generally, it is found that electrostatics increases with granule length-ratio. Two kinds of granular sliding face shapes were used in this work, half circle and rectangle. Under the same working conditions, a granule with the sliding face shape of half-circle tends to produce more electrostatics than that of rectangle. In addition, the efficiency of granule charge generation increases with sliding times although the amount of impact charge is decreased by the initial charge. Electrostatics increases with sliding area, which is independent of granule sliding-face shape and sliding times. Electrostatics also increases with granule sliding velocity. Front-facing sliding with a short edge tends to generate more electrostatics than that with a long edge. In this work, three sliding-plate angles were chosen as 30°,54°,70°, where granules sliding along the inclined plate at 54° acquired the highest electrostatics in comparison with other two angles. Humidity has significant effect on electrostatics as that electrostatics decreases with humidity. At lower relative humidity, the granule length-ratio is found to have more effect on electrostatics.