Particle motion characteristics of vertical pipe on a the horizontal-vertical pneumatic conveying system installed dune models in the different curvature elbows

Abstract

To minimize energy consumption in transportation, a dune model is developed and installed in elbow with varying radii of curvature in the horizontal-vertical pneumatic conveying system in this study. The experimental study focuses on the effect of dune model in elbow with different radius of curvature on the pneumatic conveying system in terms of pressure drop, additional pressure drop coefficient, and the power loss coefficient. Furthermore, the particle concentration and velocity distribution are measures by using the electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) and the high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) technology. Finally, the particle pulsation velocity is analyzed to reveal the particle motion mechanism of vertical pipe with dune model by using the fourier transform and wavelet transform. The results indicate that the minimum gas conveying velocity is reduced by installing the dune model, with a maximum reduction rate of 10.36 %, and the maximum reduction rate of power loss coefficient decreased is 11.56 %. At the same time, the particle concentration near the outside and inside wall of the pipe with dune is lower and higher than of without dune, and the particle axial velocities with dune are larger than the case of no dune, and the particle axial pulsation intensity with dune are larger than the case of no dune. Otherwise, the peak value of power spectrum of with dune is lower than that of no dune model in the low frequency region, and the wavelet fluctuation energy of low frequency has a great influence on the axial velocity of particles near the inside wall of pipe for the case of dune model.