Particle velocity profile in an inclined rotating drum

Various experimental and numerical studies have been carried out to study the velocity profiles of the particles inside horizontal rotating drums, but little emphasis has been laid on inclined rotating drums, though these drums are extensively used in granular process industries. In this study, velocity profiles of the particles in a rotating drum with 0o, 5o, 10o, and 15o inclinations have been studied by using the discrete element method. It was found that at the locations of the drum with the volumetric fill in the range of 0.2 0.8, the inclined rotating drum has a similar variation of velocity with the radial height to the horizontal rotating drum. However, the variation of the average particle velocity along the length of the drum differs for horizontal and inclined drums. Furthermore, for the inclined rotating drum, the average velocity increases with the increase in the volumetric fill

Mixing of particles in a rotating drum with inclined axis of rotation

Various experimental and numerical studies have been carried out to study the mixing processes inside rotating drums with a horizontal axis of rotation in the past, but little effort has been made to investigate the rotating drums with an inclined axis of rotation, though such inclined drums exist in industrial waste management, food processing, power and pharmaceutical industries. To fill this gap, in this work, the discrete element method was used to study the mixing phenomena of a rotating drum for different angles of inclination from 0° to 15°. It was found that for inclined rotating drums, the whole bed Lacey mixing index is higher than that for the horizontal drum by 7.2% when the angle of inclination is 10°. The mixing index is related to the area ratio of the active region to the whole bed and volumetric fill. Increase in volumetric fill would lead to the decrease of the mixing index. The mixing index and area ratio exhibit similar patterns along the length of the drum for different angles of inclination

Axial segregation of a rotating drum with an inclined axis of rotation

Different experimental and numerical studies have been carried out to study the effect of input properties on axial segregation patterns in rotating drums in the past, but little effort has been made to investigate the effect of angle of inclination of the rotating drums, though such inclined drums exist in industrial waste management, food processing, power and pharmaceutical industries. To overcome this gap, in this work, the discrete element method was used to study the axial segregation phenomena of a rotating drum with different angles of inclination from 0 to 15 degrees for variable angular velocity of a drum. The axial segregation patterns along the length of the rotating drum were examined. It was found that with an increase of angle of inclination of the drum, which directly affects the inclination of the particle gravitational force acting on particles along the axial direction, which induces axial dispersion of large particles towards the lower end of the drum. As a result, large particles tend to accumulate on the lower end of the rotating drum, which leads towards controlled band formation applications to the industrial process with continues segregation output requirements