Akbar Farzanegan; Morteza Gholami; M. H. Rahimian
Abstract
Dense Medium Cyclone is a high capacity device that is widely used in coal preparation. It is simple in design but the swirling turbulent flow, the presence of medium and coal with different density and size fraction and the presence of the air-core make the flow pattern in DMCs complex. In this article ...
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Dense Medium Cyclone is a high capacity device that is widely used in coal preparation. It is simple in design but the swirling turbulent flow, the presence of medium and coal with different density and size fraction and the presence of the air-core make the flow pattern in DMCs complex. In this article the flow pattern simulation of DMC is performed with computational fluid dynamics and Fluent software. Simulations are performed to give the axial velocity profile and the air-core. Multiphase simulations (air/water/medium) are performed with RSM model to predict turbulence dispersion, VOF model to achieve interface between air and water phases, Mixture model to give multiphase simulation and DPM model to predict coal particle tracking and partition curve. The numerical results were compared with experimental data and good agreement was observed. Also, separation efficiency of DMC was predicted using CFD simulations and shown by the Tromp curve. The comparison of simulated and measured Tromp curves showed that CFD simulation can predict Tromp curve reasonably within acceptable tolerance, however, for more accurate multiphase simulation including solid phase, it is suggested to use discrete element modeling (DEM) approach coupled with CFD.
Akbar farzanegan; Bahareh Arabzadeh; Vahid Hasanzadeh
Abstract
Discrete Element Method (DEM) is extensively used for mathematical modeling and simulating the behavior of discrete discs and discrete spheres in two and three dimensional space, respectively. Prediction of particles flow regime, power draw and kinetic energy for a laboratory or an industrial mill is ...
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Discrete Element Method (DEM) is extensively used for mathematical modeling and simulating the behavior of discrete discs and discrete spheres in two and three dimensional space, respectively. Prediction of particles flow regime, power draw and kinetic energy for a laboratory or an industrial mill is possible by DEM simulation. In this article, a new approach was used to assess the main parameters of a transparent ball mill constructed in mineral processing laboratory of the University of Tehran. The mill shell and crushing balls are made of Plexiglas® and compressed glass respectively. The true values of mechanical parameters for these materials, required for DEM modeling, were unknown. The authors back-calculated the best values of mechanical properties of Plexiglas and compressed glass materials based on a large number of DEM simulations. Back-calculation procedure was mainly based on the comparison between electrical power draw measured in real mill and mechanical power draw calculated by DEM model while trying to simulate particle flow regime inside the real mill accurately. The results showed that the optimal number and design of lifters can be adequately determined by improving torque and kinetic energy in crushing elements through DEM simulation trials based on the back-calculated mechanical parameters.
