Effect of particle size on flow and mixing in a bladed granular mixer

A number of studies have modeled flow and mixing of granular materials using the discrete element method (DEM). In an attempt to reduce computational costs, many of these DEM studies model particles larger than the actual particle size without investigating the implications of this assumption. Using DEM, the influence of the modeled particle size on flow and mixing in a bladed granular mixer is studied. The predicted flow microdynamics, including mixing rates, are strongly dependent on the particle diameter. The effect of particle size on macroscopic advective flow also is significant, particularly for dilute flow regions. These results suggest that the influence of particle size needs to be taken into consideration when using larger particles in DEM mixing simulations. To guide scale‐up efforts, particle‐size‐based scaling relationships for several key flow measurements are presented. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: 46–57, 2015     

碳酸氢钠调控五水碳酸镁的合成

在NaHCO₃调控作用下, 通过MgCl₂和Na₂CO₃反应结晶合成了五水碳酸镁(MgCO₃·5H₂O)。利用SEM、XRD和TG等技术, 结合反应结晶过程中镁离子浓度变化, 研究了工艺参数对结晶过程和产物影响。实验结果表明, 合成五水碳酸镁过程中极易生成MgCO₃·3H₂O副产物。纯MgCO₃·5H₂O制备工艺条件为:NaHCO₃加入量≥3.00 g·L^-1, 碳酸钠加料速率2～50 ml·min^-1, 合成温度0～5.0℃。所合成的五水碳酸镁呈棱柱状形貌, 晶体表面光滑, 尺寸20～160 μm。分析表明, 添加碳酸氢钠促进了结晶动力学, 同时 基团对三水碳酸镁晶体的形成具有位阻效应, 但有利于五水碳酸镁晶体形成, 产生晶型调控的协同效果。工艺参数的改变将使得结晶过程发生热力学和动力学控制的转换, 影响结晶产物的晶型晶貌。     

Ultra Low Dosage of Platinum and Cerium Fuel Additives in Diesel Particulate Control

The effect of a platinum metal additive on the performance of three commonly used base-metal fuel additives for the catalytic oxidation of diesel particulate was studied. Engine experiments using Corning EX80 filters and oxidation experiments in flow-reactor equipment showed that especially a combination of platinum and cerium additives is very active in the catalytic oxidation of diesel particulates. The additive dose rate can be very low, i.e., about 5 ppm cerium and 0.25 ppm platinum, without loss of effectiveness. NO₂ plays a key role in this process. Platinum accumulated on the filter catalyses the oxidation of NO to NO₂, whereas cerium catalyses the oxidation of particulate with NO₂. Copper and iron do not catalyse the latter reaction. An additional effect of this oxidation mechanism is a substantial NO₂ reduction.     

Ceria‐coated diesel particulate filters for continuous regeneration

The potential of diesel particulate filters wash‐coated with highly dispersed nano‐metric ceria particles for continuous regeneration has been investigated. To this end, catalytic filters were prepared, soot‐loaded (avoiding the formation of the cake layer), and regenerated—under isothermal conditions—at temperature ranging from 200–600°C. Results have shown that catalytic oxidation of soot starts from 300°C and, at all temperatures, the selectivity to CO₂ is higher than 99%. 475°C is the minimum temperature at which the filter is regenerated via catalytic path. At this temperature, the catalytic filter maintains substantially the same performance over repeated cycles of soot loading and regeneration, indicating that the thermal stability of ceria is preserved. This has been further confirmed by comparison between the outcomes obtained from characterization (X‐ray powder diffraction, N₂ adsorption at 77 K, Hg intrusion porosimetry, and scanning electron microscope/energy dispersive X‐ray analysis) of fresh filter and filter subjected to repeated regeneration tests. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 3442–3449, 2017     

Mathematical Modeling of a Continuous Vibrating Fluidized Bed Dryer for Grain

A mathematical model for the drying of grain in a continuous vibrating fluidized bed dryer was developed. Simple equipment and material models were applied to describe the process. In the plug-flow equipment model, a thin layer of particles moving forward and well mixed in the direction of the gas flow was examined. Mass and heat transfer within a single wet particle was described by effective transport coefficients. Assuming constant effective mass transport coefficient and thermal conductivity, analytical solutions of the mass and energy balances were obtained. The variation in both transport coefficients along the dryer was taken into account by a stepwise application of the analytical solution in space intervals with averaged coefficients from previous locations in the dryer. Calculation results were in fairly good agreement with experimental data from the literature. However, the results depend strongly on relationships used to determine the heat and mass transfer coefficients; because the results from correlations found in the literature vary considerably, the correlations should be adapted to the specific equipment in order to obtain reliable results.     

CHARACTERIZATION AND COMPARISON OF SPECIATED ATMOSPHERIC CARBONACEOUS PARTICULATES AND THEIR POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBON CONTENTS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE PASO DEL NORTE AIRSHED ALONG THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER

Carbonaceous particulate matter (PM) was collected by both thermal precipitation and glass fiber filters from specific combustion sources and examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). PM from various natural gas burner combustion regimes (NGPM), burning tires (TPM), a heavy duty diesel truck (DPM), wood burning (WPM), candle burning (CPM), along with commercial black carbon (BC) powder and multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) aggregates material exhibited similarities in PM microstructure, and average primary spherule diameters. The spherule structures consisted of curved graphene fragments and intercalated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). PAH concentrations were measured and compared for these PMs, including PAH diagnostic ratios. An analysis of PAH carcinogenicity either as a carcinogenicity index or a potency equivalency factor from literature data indicated that only the TPM PAH content would pose any significant long term, carcinogenicity threat.     

COMPARISON OF TWO ANALYTICAL METHODS FOR THE DETERMINATION OF AZAARENES IN ATMOSPHERIC PARTICULATE MATTER

In this paper, the development of an analytical method for the separation and quantification of 20 azaarenes is described. Two methods are compared: high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC-fluorescence) and gas chromatography with mass spectrometry detection (GC-MS).

Although HPLC-fluorescence was proven to be the most sensitive method, GC-MS was selected in particular for the efficiency of the separation of the 20 azaarenes. The detection limits of the HPLC-fluorescence and GC-MS methods varied between 0.04 μ g.L^?1 (dibenz[a,c]acridine) and 1.30 μ g.L ^?1 (acridine) and between 1.50 μ g.L ^?1 (benz[c]acridine) and 2.56 μ g.L ^?1 (dibenz[a,c]acridine) respectively.

The GC-MS method was applied to particulate matter (PM ₁₀ ) samples collected over 48–72 h periods between April 2006 and February 2007 in Strasbourg (East of France). Before analysis aerosol samples were Soxhlet extracted and concentrated to a final volume of about 1 mL of hexane.

The seasonally mean concentrations of all azaarenes for this urban site have shown a seasonal variation in which the maximum concentration occurred in the winter (6.0 ng.m ³ ) and the minimum in the summer (0.90 ng.m³). For all the seasons the 2 rings species were the predominant azaarenes while the > 4 rings species were the less abundant.     

Heating/Drying Using Particulate Medium : A Review Part I. General and Heat transfer parameters

ABSTRACT

This paper presents an Overview of particulate medium drying and heat treating of cereal grains. While the conventional air drying of grains is well documented, studies on the drying of grains using heated granular medium do not appear to exist. The scientific study of the different aspects of drying with a heated granular medium began in the early 1970's. Progress on the utilization of particle-to-particle heat transfer was slow as evidenced by the fact that there is no commercial dryer using the method as of today.

The first section of this paper deals with conduction heating and how it led to the use of granular medium in heating the grain. Starting with the earliest work on conduction heating reported by Kelly ( 1939), the developments in the heating of grain using granular media is discussed. For decades since Kelly's report, work in the subject area dealt mostly with the theoretical aspects of solid-to-solid heat transfer. Thus, in the succeeding section of the paper, heat transfer parameters and mechanisms involved in the process are thoroughly investigated.     

Collective dynamics modeling of polydisperse particulate systems via Markov chains

This paper develops an efficient approach to modeling and analyzing the overall dynamics of polydisperse particulate systems, exemplified using a rotating drum with horizontal axis, under both constant and time-varying operating conditions. This approach captures the collective dynamics using stochastic models in the form of Markov chains. The characteristics of such dynamics can be obtained from the Markov chains operator. It provides a systematic way to the analysis of collective dynamical features of particle movements. The obtained operators are used to estimate the spatial particle distribution and the degree of particulate mixing as examples of collective dynamic features of polydisperse particulate systems. In this paper, Markov chains models were developed from discrete element method simulation results to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Drag force in discrete particle models—Continuum scale or single particle scale?

Unresolved discrete particle (DP) models, where a Lagrangian method is used for the solid phase, and a Eulerian method for the fluid phase, have become increasingly popular. The fluctuations of the drag force on individual particles in a homogeneous random array obtained from fully resolved simulations using a lattice Boltzmann method were analysed; such fluctuations are by construction ignored in the unresolved DP model. The drag on individual particles in the array can differ up to 40% with the drag that would be used in DP type simulations was found. A detailed analysis shows that the drag on an individual particle depends strongly on all its surrounding neighbors within a distance of at least two particle diameters. As in DP models, the local flow field is unresolved, the conclusion is that this root mean square (RMS) deviation in the drag force is inherent to the model. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 59: 316–324, 2013