Erosive wear reduction for safe and reliable pneumatic conveying systems: review and future directions

Abstract

Pneumatic Conveying System (PCS) is widely used to transport powdered and granular materials. If the conveyed material is hard and abrasive, it leads to erosion of bends and other surfaces, like diverter valves, which enforce a directional change and make the transport operations unsafe and unreliable. Researchers have attempted a variety of solutions to reduce the severity of erosion in such cases. New materials have been used, different bend geometries have been investigated, and flow improvements have also been tried out. This paper investigates and reviews various solutions to reduce the magnitude of erosion of bends resulting in enhanced life of the components. It also highlights the future directions that could mitigate the problem of erosive wear.