Abstract
The numerical model of the granular flow within an aggregate mixture, conducted in the vertical static and/or the conveyor blender, was explored using the discrete element method (DEM) approach. The blending quality of limestone fine aggregate fractions binary mixture for application in self-compacting concrete was studied. The potential of augmenting the conveyor mixer working efficiency by joining its operation to a Komax-type vertical static mixer, to increase the blending conduct was investigated. In addition the impact of the feed height on the flow field in the cone-shaped conveyor mixer was examined using the DEM simulation. Applying the numerical approach enabled a deeper insight into the quality of blending actions, while the relative standard deviation criteria ranked the uniformity of the mixture. The primary objective of this investigation was to examine the behavior of mixture for two types of blenders and to estimate the combined blending action of these two mixers, to explore the potential to augment the homogeneity of the aggregate fractions binary mixture, i.e., mixing quality, reduce the blending time and to abbreviate the energy-consuming.
Highlights
Intense industrialization and urbanization that have been taking place for over a century introduced and subsequently accelerated the production of non-shaped construction materials such as concrete [1]
Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is highly workable type of concrete that can flow into various shapes and between reinforcement bars under its weight successfully filling all voids without segregation or bleeding
The aggregate plays a primary role in affecting the characteristics of fresh SCC and the final performances of the solidified composite material [8,9]
Summary
Intense industrialization and urbanization that have been taking place for over a century introduced and subsequently accelerated the production of non-shaped construction materials such as concrete [1]. Different investigations were conducted to foresee the quality of the mixing product, such as a study by Rantanen and Khinast [13], in which the discrete element method (DEM) was applied to investigate the biopharmaceutical properties of the particle raw materials. Gao et al [18] investigated the effects of particle characteristics on the mixing process, and the DEM model for the contact between particles, and between blender and particles. The different influences on blending, such as rotational velocity, dosing level and the effects of the mixer’s inner geometry and its contact to granules were investigated by Rong et al [30]. The main idea in this investigation was to model the mixing performance of coupled vertical static and vertical-cone conveyor blenders used for homogenization of the limestone aggregate mixture. The mixing capabilities within the conveyor mixer was studied in Experiment #2, while in the Experiment #3 the consequence of the coupled action of these two mixers was investigated
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