Cross-type optical particle separation in a microchannel

A continuous, real-time optical particle separation, which was previously delineated theoretically, is successfully implemented experimentally for the first time. In this method, particles suspended in a flowing fluid are irradiated with a laser beam propagating in a direction perpendicular to direction of fluid flow. Upstream of the laser beam, the particles move parallel to the direction of fluid flow. When the particles pass through the laser beam, the scattering force pushes them in the direction of laser beam propagation, causing the particles to be displaced perpendicular to the fluid flow direction. This displacement, known as the retention distance, depends on the particle size and the laser beam parameters. Finally, the particles escape from the laser beam and maintain their retention distances as they move downstream. In the present work, the trajectories and retention distances of polystyrene latex microspheres with three distinct diameters were monitored and measured using cross-type optical particle separation. The measured retention distances for different-sized particles were in good agreement with theoretical predictions.     

Theoretical development of in situ optical particle separator: cross-type optical chromatography

An in situ separation system, cross-type optical chromatography, is developed theoretically, and an analytic solution of the retention distance is derived. Particle trajectories in the cross-type optical chromatography are calculated for various sizes and materials of the particles and for flow velocities. Further, cross-type optical chromatography assisted by a particle beam generation system is designed.     

Particle dispersion and separation resolution of pinched flow fractionation

This paper investigates a hydrodynamic particle separation technique that employs pinching of particles to a narrow microchannel. The particles are subject to a sudden expansion which results in a size-based particle separation transverse to the flow direction. The separation resolution and particle dispersion are measured using epifluorescence microscopy. The resolution and dispersion are predicted using a compact theoretical model. Devices are fabricated using conventional soft lithography of polydimethylsiloxane. The results show that the separation resolution is a function of the microchannel aspect ratio, particle size difference, and the microchannel sidewall roughness. A separation resolution as large as 3.8 is obtained in this work. This work shows that particles with diameters on the order of the sidewall roughness cannot be separated using pinched flow fractionation.     

Measurement methods for quantifying powder flowability and velocity in cold spray systems

Four powders with varying bulk densities, Al, Al₂O₃, Sn, and Cu, were used to determine quantifiable relationships between powder flowability, mass flow rate, and powder velocity with particle morphology and particle distribution in a cold spray system. High particle density results in good powder flowability, specifically when the powders are spherical relative to irregular morphology. Particle velocity during cold spray, measured with a double disk rotary system, increases non-linearly with an increase of inlet pressure. The increase in mass flow rate from the hopper and the resulting mass output of the cold spray system shows a consequence of good powder flowability. Conversely, a high mass flow rate decreases the particle velocity during the cold spray process, with better flowability leading to decreases on the order of 10% in particle velocity in the cold spray system. The described methods, proposed tools, and findings can be easily made with cost-effective and on-the-spot measurements.     

Processing effects on in-flight particle state and functional coating properties of plasma-sprayed manganese zinc ferrite

Magnetic properties of manganese zinc ferrite (MZF) coatings deposited by atmospheric dc plasma spraying largely depend on zinc and oxygen loss during particle flight. The temperature and velocity of in-flight MZF particles were widely varied by changing plasma spray conditions to examine these chemistry changes and resultant magnetic properties. Zn loss increases with increased particle temperature or decreased particle velocity. Meanwhile, wüstite (FeO) formation, related to the oxygen loss, is more complicated, partly because oxygen, which is lost during flight in the high-temperature zone of the plasma jet, can be recovered at longer spray distances. As a result, the saturation magnetization of MZF coatings decreases and the coercivity increases with increased particle temperature or decreased particle velocity.     

Reduction of a time of flight experiment to tomography

We propose a novel generalization of time of flight analysis which yields unambiguous information about the velocity spectrum as a function of time of a point pulsed particle source. The records of several particle counters placed at various prescribed distances from the source are combined in a way derived from tomography theory to give a well defined set of moments of the source emission function. A variety of reconstructions can then be made, which we illustrate by computer examples. The resolution of the method is investigated. There are possible applications to plasma focus and laser fusion experiments.     

Circulating particle flow and air bubble behavior at various superficial air velocities in two-dimensional gas–solid fluidized beds

Circulating particle flow and behavior of air bubbles in a two-dimensional gas-solid fluidized bed of various superficial air velocities are investigated by recording videos of movement of a plastic pellet put into the fluidized bed and rising air bubbles using a video camera. The movement velocity of the plastic pellet and properties of the air bubbles such as the bubble rising velocity and the bubble distribution coefficient, which shows the proportion of the bubbles erupting at the center of the bed surface, are measured by analyzing the videos. It is found that the plastic pellet moves following the circulating particle flow; the particles rise up at the center of a column and fall down near the side walls, and that the movement velocity increases with the superficial air velocity. The bubble rising velocity, the apparent erupting bubble size and the bubble distribution coefficient increase, and the bubble eruption frequency slightly decreases, with the superficial air velocity. These results indicate that the circulating particle flow is generated by the rising air bubbles. In particular, the fact that the air bubbles rise at the center of the column and coalesce with other bubbles is closely related to the generation of the circulating particle flow.     

Milling and Classification of Printed Circuit Boards for Material Recycling

Recycling of waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) is an emerging issue due to its hazardous nature. It is important to identify an appropriate environment-friendly process to recover the valuables and for safe disposal. The present work deals with the two-stage crushing process followed by a circulating air classifier for the separation of metals and nonmetals from the printed circuit boards (PCB). The two-stage crushing process is deployed to liberate the valuables for an appropriate progeny size distribution. The metal content decreases as the particle size decreases below 0.5 mm. However, it increases metal content above 500 µm up to 1,800 µm. It is concluded that the metals primarily enriched in the size range of ?1.8 + 0.5 mm. The amount of metals and plastics present in each fraction is estimated. Among the classifier parameters, air flow velocity played a dominant role in metal enrichment. The material feed rate and rotating guide vane angle have no a significant effect on the enrichment of metals and nonmetals. The air flow velocity found was to be one of the crucial parameters for enrichment of metals. The superficial air flow velocity is optimized for efficient separation of metals and nonmetals of PCBs.     

High gradient magnetic particle separation in viscous flows by 3D BEM

The boundary element method was applied to study the motion of magnetic particles in fluid flow under the action of external nonuniform magnetic field. The derived formulation combines the velocity-vorticity resolved Navier–Stokes equations with the Lagrange based particle tracking model, where the one-way coupling with fluid phase was considered. The derived algorithm was used to test a possible design of high gradient magnetic separation in a narrow channel by computing particles trajectories in channel flow under the influence of hydrodynamic and magnetic forces. Magnetic field gradient was obtained by magnetization wires placed outside of the channel. Simulations with varying external magnetic field and flow rate were preformed in order to asses the collection efficiency of the proposed device. We found that the collection efficiency decreases linearly with increasing flow rate. Also, the collection efficiency was found to increase with magnetic field strength only up a saturation point. Furthermore, we found that high collection efficiently is not feasible at high flow velocity and/or at weak magnetic field. Recommendation for optimal choice of external magnetic field and flow rate is discussed.     

The movement law and orientation control of rectangular particles in the viscous fluid domain based on IS-FEM

Understanding the movement law and orientation control mechanism of non-spherical particles are significant for industrial applications. In this work, the flow characteristics of rectangular particles, in the uniform and wedge viscous fluid domain, are simulated by the immersed smoothed finite element method (IS-FEM). The influences of mesh resolution and time-step on particle velocity are analyzed, and the numerical procedure is validated by the published model and sedimentation experiments. The operating parameters that affect the particle flow are systematically studied, including Reynolds number, initial angle, channel offset distance, and aspect ratio. Moreover, the particle angles are adjusted by the velocity gradient of fluid domains. The result indicates that the velocities, angle, and drag of rectangular particles are closely related to the working conditions. The long axis of rectangular particles is consistent with the flow direction in shrinking fluid domains and is perpendicular to the flow direction in expanding fluid domains. The angle distribution law of rectangular particles in moving wedge fluid domains is determined. These findings provide a theoretical foundation for particle sedimentation and suspension flow, which is helpful for the further separation and orientation control of mixed particles.     

Wavelet multi-resolution analysis on particle dynamics in a horizontal pneumatic conveying

The particle velocities are measured by the high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) in the acceleration and fully developed regimes of a horizontal pneumatic conveying. Based on the measured particle fluctuation velocities, continuous wavelet transform and one-dimensional orthogonal wavelet decomposition were applied to reveal particle dynamics in terms of time frequency analysis, the contribution from wavelet level to the particle fluctuation energy, spatial correlation and probability distribution of wavelet levels. The time frequency characteristics of particle fluctuation velocity suggest that the small-scale particle motions are suppressed and tend to transfer into large scale particle motions from acceleration regime to fully developed regime. In the near bottom part of pipe, the fluctuation energy of axial particle motion is mainly contributed from the wavelet levels of relatively low frequency, however, in the near top part of pipe, wavelet levels of relatively high frequency make comparable contribution to the axial particle fluctuation energy in the suspension flow regime, and this contribution decreases as particles are accelerated along the pipe. The low frequency wavelet levels exhibit large spatial correlation, and this spatial correlation increases as the particles flow from acceleration regime to fully developed regime. The skewness factor and kurtosis factor of wavelet level suggest that the deviation of Gaussian probability distribution is associated with the central frequency of wavelet level, and the deviation from Gaussian distribution is more evident as increasing central frequency. The higher wavelet levels can be linked to small sale particle motions, which lead to irregular particle fluctuation velocity.     

Shear flow over a particulate or fibrous plate

Simple shear flow over a porous plate consisting of a planar array of particles is studied as a model of flow over a membrane. The main objective is to compute the slip velocity defined with reference to the velocity profile far above the plate, and the drift velocity induced by the shear flow underneath the plate. The difference between these two velocities is shown to be proportional to the thickness of the plate. When the geometry of the particle array is anisotropic, the directions of the slip and drift velocity are generally different from the direction of the overpassing shear flow. An integral formulation is developed to describe flow over a plate consisting of a periodic lattice of particles with arbitrary shape, and integral representations for the velocity and pressure are developed in terms of the doubly-periodic Green's function of three-dimensional Stokes flow. Based on the integral representation, asymptotic expressions for the slip and drift velocity are derived to describe the limit where the particle size is small compared to the inter-particle separation, and numerical results are presented for spherical and spheroidal particles of arbitrary size. The asymptotic results are found to be accurate over an extended range of particle sizes. To study the limit of small plate porosity, the available solution for shear flow over a plane wall with a circular orifice is used to describe flow over a plate with a homogeneous distribution of circular perforations, and expressions for the slip and drift velocity are derived. Corresponding results are presented for axial and transverse shear now over a periodic array of cylinders arranged distributed in a plane. Streamline pattern illustrations confirm that a negative drift velocity is due to the onset of eddies between closely-spaced particles.     

Proposal and testing for a fiber-optic-based measurement of flow vorticity

A fiber-optic arrangement is devised to measure the velocity difference, deltav(l), down to small separation l. With two sets of optical fibers and couplers the new technique becomes capable of measuring one component of the time- and space-resolved vorticity vector omega(r, t). The technique is tested in a steady laminar flow, in which the velocity gradient (or flow vorticity) is known. The experiment verifies the working principle of the technique and demonstrates its applications. It is found that the new technique measures the velocity difference (and hence the velocity gradient when l is known) with the same high accuracy and high sampling rate as laser Doppler velocimetry does for the local velocity measurement. It is nonintrusive and capable of measuring the velocity gradient with a spatial resolution as low as ~50 mum. The successful test of the fiber-optic technique in the laminar flow with one optical channel is an important first step for the development of a two-channel fiber-optic vorticity probe, which has wide use in the general area of fluid dynamics, especially in the study of turbulent flows.     

Superimposed noninterfering probes to extend the capabilities of phase Doppler anemometry

We propose using multiple superimposed noninterfering probes (SNIPs) of the same wavelength but different beam angles to extend the capabilities of phase Doppler anemometry. When a particle is moving in a SNIP the Doppler signals that are produced exhibit multiple Doppler frequencies and phase shifts. The resolution of the measurements of particle size (i.e., by fringe spacing and Doppler frequency) increases with beam angle. Then, with the solution proposed, even with only two detectors several measurements of size can be obtained for the same particle with increasing resolution if we consider higher frequencies in the signal. Several optical solutions to produce SNIPs as well as a signal-processing algorithm to treat the multiple-frequency Doppler signals are proposed. Experimental validations of the sizing of spherical and cylindrical particles demonstrate the applicability of this technique for particle measurement. We believe that this new technique can be of great interest when high resolution of size, velocity, and even refractive index is required.     

Optimizing band width and resolution in micro-free flow electrophoresis

The broadening mechanisms for micro-free flow electrophoresis (micro-FFE) have been investigated using a van Deemter analysis. Separation power, the product of electric field and residence time, is presented as a parameter for predicting the position of sample streams and for comparing separations under different conditions. Band broadening in micro-FFE is governed by diffusion at lower linear velocities and a migration distance-dependent mechanism at higher linear velocities. At higher linear velocities, the parabolic flow profile is elongated, generating a distribution of analyte residence times in the separation channel. This distribution of residence times gives rise to a distribution of migration distances in the lateral direction since analytes spend different amounts of time in the electric field. Equations were derived to predict the effect of electric field and buffer flow rate on broadening. Experimental data were collected to determine whether the derived equations were useful in explaining broadening caused by diffusion and hydrodynamic flow at different linear velocities and electric fields. Overall there was an excellent correlation between the predicted and experimentally observed values allowing linear velocity and electric field to be optimized. Suppression of electroosmotic flow is proposed as a means of reducing micro-FFE band broadening due to hydrodynamic effects and maximizing resolution and peak capacity.     

波纹翅片管换热器表面粉尘沉积特性的实验研究

空调器室外换热器大多采用波纹翅片管,因使用过程中表面积灰而导致性能下降。本文通过搭建积灰可视化实验台来观测粉尘的分布特征并测定沉积量,研究波纹翅片管换热器表面的粉尘沉积特性。其中测试样件的翅片间距范围为1.6~3.2mm,喷粉浓度范围为80~280 kg/m~3,风速范围为1~3 m/s,喷粉时间为15~90 s。研究表明,粉尘主要沉积在换热器迎风面的翅片前缘处以及换热管的迎风面上;翅片间距小时易于粉尘沉积,翅片间距为1.6 mm样件上的单位面积粉尘沉积量较3.2 mm样件最多增加了52%;提高喷粉浓度会增加粉尘沉积,喷粉浓度为280 kg/m~3下的单位面积粉尘沉积量较80 kg/m~3最多增加了88.2%;高风速能够抑制粉尘沉积,风速为3 m/s下的单位面积粉尘沉积量较1 m/s最多下降了6.3%。     

Numerical investigation of electrostatic effect on particle behavior in a 90 degrees bend

Particle behavior in a turbulent circular-sectioned 90° bend under electrostatic field at three air flow rates (1600 L/min, 1100 L/min and 950 L/min, the corresponding bulk Reynolds numbers are 58,000, 40,000, 34,000) is simulated by a Large Eddy Simulation-Lagrangian particle tracking technique (LES-LPT) method coupled with electrostatic field model by Coulomb’s law. This numerical simulation is dedicated to study the electrostatic effect on particle behavior and erosion occurred in the dilute particle-laden bend flow. Forces considered acting on particles includes drag, lift, gravity and electrostatic force. Results obtained for the fluid phase are in good agreement with experimental and numerical data. Predictions show that electrostatic field does affect the particle motion in the pipe bend. At higher air flow rate with higher electrostatics at the inner arc the increasement of impact angle is lower than that at lower flow rate with lower electrostatics. The same conclusion can be found at the outer arc. In addition, electrostatic effect does increase particle-wall impact velocity while such trend decreases with flow rate. Erosion rate increases with increasing air flow rate, which is independent of electrostatics. However, given the same flow rate, the electrostatics reduces the occurrence of erosion at the bend. The erosion rate under electrostatic effect is found to approach that without electrostatics as the flow rate increases. Therefore, the effect of electrostatics on erosion decreases with the air flow rate.     

Evaluation of direct quadrature method of moment for the internally circulating fluidized bed simulation with ultrafine particles

In the framework of the Euler-Euler gas–solid two-fluid model, the particle population balance equation is solved by the direct quadrature method of moment. The dynamic process of ultrafine particle movement and aggregation in an internally circulating fluidized bed is simulated. The distribution of the concentration and velocity of the agglomerates in the flow process is given, and the changes of the moments in the bed are shown. The effects of different breakage coefficients and inlet gas rates on the concentration distribution of agglomerates are compared. The results show that the particle size decreases with the increase of breakage coefficient, and the time required to reach steady fluidization state increases; the higher the inlet velocity, the better the effect of circulating particles in the bed. When there is a certain gas velocity difference between the two sides, the effect of circulating particles in the bed is better.     

Experimental investigation of bubble and particle motion behaviors in a gas-solid fluidized bed with side wall liquid spray

Bubble and particle motion behaviors are investigated experimentally in a gas solid fluidized bed with liquid spray on the side wall. The particles used in the experiment are classified as Geldart B particles. The results reveal that when the fluid drag force is less than the liquid bridge force between particles, liquid distribute all over the bed. Bubble size increases as the increase of inter-particle force, then decreases owing to the increase of particle weight with increasing liquid flow rate. When the fluid drag force is greater than the liquid bridge force, liquid mainly distribute in the upper part of the bed. And it is difficult for the wet particles to form agglomerates. Bubble size decreases with increasing liquid flow rate due to the increasing of minimum fluidization velocity. Besides, the acoustic emission (AE) measurements illustrate that the liquid adhesion and evaporation on particles could enhance the particles motion intensity. Consequently, the bubble and particle behaviors change due to the variation in fluidized gas velocity and liquid flow rate should be seriously considered when attempting to successfully design and operate the side wall liquid spray gas solid fluidized bed.     

Limiting behaviour of particles in Taylor–Couette flow

Negatively buoyant inertial particles are tracked in a steady Taylor vortex background flow with gravity acting along the axis of the cylinders. Particles are found to either fall through the apparatus due to gravity or to be within retention zones. The particles within these retention zones tend towards a limit orbit in the meridional plane. It is found that for particles with density close to that of the background fluid, the size of the retention zone is relatively large with the centre of the limit orbit being close to that of the Taylor vortex. As the particle density increases, the size of the retention zone decreases and the centre of the limit orbit moves away from the centre of the Taylor vortex. The effect of varying the fluid and particle parameters on the retention zone and orbit size is investigated.