Terminal settling velocity of the binary solid mixture in the non-Newtonian pseudoplastic liquid system

Abstract

Particle settling in a non-Newtonian pseudoplastic liquid has gained interest in various industrial applications, including chemical, petroleum, food and pharmaceutical industries. Terminal settling velocities (TVS) of non-spherical particles of binary systems in non-Newtonian viscous pseudoplastic shear thinning solutions were investigated experimentally. An aqueous solution of the sodium salt of carboxymethyl cellulose (SCMC) differing in the concentration of (0.4–0.8) kg/m3 was used as the liquid phase in two different size fluidized bed columns. TSV of the binary solid mixture increases with particle size and decreases with SCMC concentration. The following empirical correlation has been developed which showed an average relative error is 11.41% against 64.98% (minimum) by the earlier correction. Bio-inspired ANNs integrated with GA (Genetic Algorithm) develop a generalized model for estimating settling velocity with an average relative error of 6.9%.