Transfer Chutes: Predicting Dust missions by Multiphase CFD and Coupled DEM-CFD Simulations

摘要

Dust emission is one of the main problems in the operation of transfer chutes. The design of the transfer chute heavily influences any potential dust generation. Although this influence is well known, much more attention is given to active dust suppression via water spray systems, the exhaustion of the dust polluted air or the use of electrostatic filters rather than the design optimization of the transfer chute. Due to the very specific design of the transfer chutes, sophisticated simulation methods such as Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) and Discrete Element Method (DEM) are necessary to predict the material and air flow in such plants. This paper shows how both simulation methods can be used for predicting the material and air flow through a transfer chute. Two approaches will be presented: Eulerian multiphase CFD simulation and directly coupled DEM-CFD simulations. Both approaches will be used for the simulation of the air / material flow in a laboratory-scale transfer chute with different design characteristics. This allows not only the comparison of the different simulation approaches but also a comparison with experimental data. The paper highlights the boundary conditions and entries for the different simulation approaches as well as discusses the advantage and disadvantages of each method.