Study of drum mixer operation during feed mixture preparation

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of the studies was to check the applicability of the drum mixer for the preparation of concentrated feed mixtures and to identify the dependencies of the change of mixture quality and energy consumption for mixing in the drum mixer with bent flat blades with holes on the following parameters: drum inclination angle, the fraction of control component and mixing cycle. Adequate representative regression nonuniformity models of mixture and energy consumption for mixing are obtained depending on the drum axis inclination angle in the range of 15-35 degrees, mixing time up to 20 min and the fraction of control component from 1 to 20%. Extreme values are not present. The reduction of the drum inclination angle and increase of the mixing time improves the quality of the mixture, as well as significantly increases the energy consumption of mixing. As the fraction of the control component increases from 1% to 10%, the quality of the mixture improves. Further increase in the fraction of the control component has little effect on the quality of the mixture. The variation coefficient of the control component content is reduced to 19% with the fraction of the control component equal 10% or more. As the fraction of the component decreases, the quality of the mixture decreases to 21%. As the quality of the mixture improves, the energy consumption increases. Such drum mixer may be used to prepare pre-mixtures only regardless of the fraction of the control component. In order to prepare high-quality feed mixtures, it is necessary to modernize the blades and their setting parameters.