Residence Time Distribution of Particles in a Screw Feeder: Experimental and Modelling Study. (15th July 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Huo, Chaofei; Fan, Chuigang; Feng, Ping; Lin, Weigang; Song, Wenli
• Is Part Of: Canadian journal of chemical engineering. Volume 93:Number 9(2015)
• Page Start: 1635
• Page End: 1642
• Publication Date: 2015-07-15
• Subjects: Chemical engineering -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals; 660.05
• DOI: 10.1002/cjce.22240
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0008-4034

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" xml:lang="en"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <sec id="cjce22240-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <p>Experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of screw speed and screw feeder inclination on the residence time distribution (RTD) of particles in a screw feeder via a pulse stimulus response technique. Two models based on Markov chains were developed to simulate particle flows within and between pitches. In upward and horizontal screw feeder inclination cases, a three‐parameter two‐dimensional Markov chain model consisting of parallel active and stagnant zones fitted well with the experimental RTD data, with correlation coefficients (R<sup>2</sup>) higher than 0.98, and gave a clear physical meaning for the parameters introduced. In these cases, a high screw speed or a horizontal inclination induced a high probability of forward movement from a pitch to the next pitch (<italic>f</italic>) during each rotation period of the screw, and a low ratio of stagnant zone to active zone (<italic>r</italic>) in a pitch. The upward screw feeder inclination yielded a higher diffusion probability from stagnant zone to active zone (<italic>d</italic>). In the downward screw feeder inclination case, a one‐dimensional Markov chain model without a stagnant zone was in agreement with the corresponding experimental data. The analysis showed that during each rotation period of the screw, the particles in a pitch could be transferred not only to the next pitch but also to the following two pitches.</p> </sec> </abstract>