This article investigates the emptying process of a continuous powder mixer, from both experimentaludand modelling points of view. The apparatus used in this work is a pilot scale commercial mixer GerickeudGCM500, for which a specific experimental protocol has been developed to determine the hold up inudthe mixer and the real outflow. We demonstrate that the dynamics of the process is governed by theudrotational speed of the stirrer, as it fixes characteristic values of the hold-up weight, such as a thresholdudhold-up weight. This is integrated into a Markov chain matrix representation that can predict the evolutionudof the hold-up weight, as well as that of the outflow rate during emptying the mixer. Dependingudon the advancement of the process, the Markov chain must be considered as non-homogeneous. Theudcomparison of model results with experimental data not used in the estimation procedure of the parametersudcontributes to validating the viability of this model. In particular, we report results obtained whenudemptying the mixer at variable rotational speed, through step changes.
展开▼
