Pneumatic Transport of Coarse Grain Particle Using Air Mass Balance Model

Abstract

In this work, the pneumatic transport of coarse grain particles (alumina) through a horizontal pipe is considered. Corresponding flow of the mixture is assumed as a two-phase one-dimensional flow. The present work considers a air mass balance model. A MATLAB program is developed to update the governing equations. Since a good agreement is observed between the present prediction and the result available in the literature, the model is used for further investigation. The variation of pressure drop, velocity and mass flow rate along the length of pipe for both low and high volume flow rate is predicted. It is observed that the pneumatic transport of the alumina particles is permitted up to a limiting length of the pipe due to a huge pressure drop in the pipe at very high velocity. Corresponding limiting length of the pipe with different mixture velocities is predicted.