Prediction of particle saltation velocity for horizontal dilute phase negative pressure pneumatic conveying

Abstract

The evaluation of particle saltation velocity is vital for the design of dilute negative phase pneumatic conveying systems. Nonetheless, the particle saltation velocity in dilute negative phase pneumatic conveying is largely understudied, it also lacks a consistent correlation over operating conditions and particle properties. As such, this paper investigates the effects of solid-gas ratio, particle size, and drill pipe rotational speed on particle saltation velocity in the drill pipe via CFD-DEM (computational fluid dynamics-discrete element method) simulation. Consequently, the particle saltation velocity increased gradually seemingly leaning toward a constant value with the increase of solid-gas ratio. The particle saltation velocity with larger particle size under similar solid-gas ratio was higher, while the speed of the drill pipe and the particle saltation velocity showed a negative correlation. The correlation for particle saltation velocity was established by dimension analysis method geared toward accurately predicting the particle saltation velocity in dilute negative phase pneumatic conveying. A comparison of the new correlation and the experimental data found that the error between the predicted value of the correlation and the measured particle saltation velocity is within 20% and the correlation derived by the dimensional analysis method give the well agreement.