Abstract
Due to the rapid development of powder technology around the world, powder materials are being widely used in various fields, including metallurgy, the chemical industry, and petroleum. The turbo air classifier, as a powder production equipment, is one of the most important mechanical facilities in the industry today. In order to investigate the production efficiency of ultrafine powder and improve the classification performance in a turbo air classifier, two process parameters were optimized by analyzing the influence of the rotor cage speed and air velocity on the flow field. Numerical simulations using the ANSYS-Fluent Software, as well as material classification experiments, were implemented to verify the optimal process parameters. The simulation results provide many optimal process parameters. Several sets of the optimal process parameters were selected, and the product particle size distribution was used as the inspection index to conduct a material grading experiment. The experimental results demonstrate that the process parameters of the turbo air classifier with better classification efficiency for the products of barite and iron-ore powder were an 1800 rpm rotor cage speed and 8 m/s air inlet velocity. This research study provides theoretical guidance and engineering application value for air classifiers.
Highlights
Ultrafine powders are widely used in various fields, and the powder separation technique has gradually occupied an important position in industry
Some researchers analyzed the effect of the rotor cage rotary speed on the classification sharpness index, using the Fluent software, and obtained a reasonable parameter combination for classification
Based on the narrow particle size distribution experimental system, the best rotor cage speed difference between two turbo air classifiers was found, and the results showed that with a decreasing rotation speed difference, the productivity of the narrow-level product decreased and the uniformity increased
Summary
Ultrafine powders are widely used in various fields, and the powder separation technique has gradually occupied an important position in industry. Many researchers [1,2,3,4,5,6,7] have conducted extensive studies on the theoretical analysis, flow field simulation, structural optimization, and other aspects of pneumatic grading equipment, and have made progress by obtaining many valuable results and providing the basis for the optimization of classifiers, performance enhancements, and fine separations. The main factors affecting the classification sharpness index and performance during the classification process are the rotor cage speed and the air inlet velocity inside the classifier [6,7,8]. Yu, and Liu [9,10] found that increasing the rotor cage rotary speed resulted in a finer product, but the higher speed caused the flow field to become uneven, and increased the classification sharpness index. Through the study of the Processes 2020, 8, 237; doi:10.3390/pr8020237 www.mdpi.com/journal/processes
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