Particulate flow characteristics in a novel moving granular bed

Abstract

In this work, we studied the flow characteristics of particulates in a novel moving granular bed by using experiments and numerical simulations. The new moving granular bed was equipped with one adjustable baffle and two slopes to adjust filter thickness and increase the gas-particle contacting surface. Doing so overcomes the poor adaptability and low collection rate of fine dust during the filtration, and improved the filtering performance of filter devices. In the experiment, the movement of particulates in a moving bed was recorded using a camera, and the effects of the device structure and the filter moving speed on the flow of filter particles were examined. Combined with Discrete Element Method (DEM) to simulate the velocity variation of particles in the granular bed, the mechanism of particulate flow was analyzed. The inclined surface was found to affect the flow of filter particles, and a small angle of inclination was not conducive to the particle flow. Therefore, a layer of dead particles was easily formed. The dead zone particle layers on the left slope could protect the insulation layer and the heat insulation layer outside the particle bed. Increasing the moving speed of the filter increased the velocity difference between the particles in the wall surface and the middle part. The fluidity of particles also increased to make the particle layer of dead area become thinner. The trajectory of a single particle was greatly affected by the overall moving speed, and the single particle tended to move toward the faster direction in the same plane with the increase of the filter moving speed.