Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
OPTIMIZATION OF PARTICULATE SALT FLOW ON A SCREW CONVEYOR USING DEM
Submission Author:
Francisco Samuel Chaves , CE
Co-Authors:
Francisco Samuel Chaves, Jackson Simoes, Diego Diniz, Walber Medeiros Lima, GILSOMARO BARBOSA DE MELO SILVA Gil, Neilor Santos
Presenter: GILSOMARO BARBOSA DE MELO SILVA Gil
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-2093
Abstract
The mining activity is one of the main pillars of the Brazilian economy, and over the years, it has been investing in the optimization and improvement of its processes. Screw conveyors are important equipment for transporting raw material at controlled and constant rates from one environment to another. Thus, an inadequate conveyor design leads to fluctuating and unstable flow rates, product inhomogeneity, product degradation, excessive energy consumption, high start-up torques, high equipment wear, variable residence time and segregation, and these inconveniences must be minimised. With the advancement of numerical simulation, it became possible to use models capable of predicting the behavior of present phenomena, which constantly seek their efficiency, optimization and reduction of project costs. In this context, the present work aims to present a computational modeling study focused on the optimization of the salt flow in a screw conveyor through the Discrete Element Method (DEM), used to explore the effect of particle shape, between particles and particle-wall during material transport. For this case study, some parameters of the screw conveyor were raised, such as: screw diameter, screw length and geometric shape of the conveyor duct. Through variations and alterations of these parameters, Autodesk Inventor software was used for modeling and then Rocky DEM for simulations. The simulations were carried out using the same process, with the following data: conveyor length of 1 m, helical axis rotation with 350 RPM, conveyor input flow of 30 T/h and particle grain with a diameter of 2.5 mm. The results obtained in the simulations allowed an analysis of the granular behavior of the salt flow along the entire length of the conveyor, making it possible to detect disturbing regions to the flow and areas of accumulation. Based on the studied parameters and geometries, it was also observed that the modifications carried out promoted improvements in the conveyor's performance, increasing the salt flow by approximately 3%, promoted by the reduction of accumulated areas in the equipment.
Keywords
Industrial conveyor, Discrete Element Methods, Processes optimization, Rocky DEM
