Modeling the Trajectory of Motion of Metallic and Abrasive Particles in a Washing Gutter

Abstract

Thousands of tons of metal-containing sludge are produced every month at machine-building, especially bearing producing and metallurgy enterprises where is processed. In the production of bearings, up to 10.0 thousand tons of sludge containing up to 90 % of the metal fraction is produced annually. At present, the sludge is practically nonrecyclable and brought to landfills degrading the environment. To increase the uniformity of metal powder at the stage of sludge washing, it is necessary to separate the solid articles by their density. To solve this issue, a comprehensive system of environmentally friendly technology is used for reclaiming the grinding sludge where in the process of movement of the sludge particles in a flow of detergent solution, their washing and separation by density take place. The study of the trajectory of motion of solid sludge particles makes it possible to set the mode parameters of the gutter which provide effective separation of particles by density. This enables determining the height of separator installation in the solution flow and obtaining a larger percentage of homogeneous metal particles. The main parameters of the washing gutter which can ensure effective separation of metal and abrasive particles include length and width of the gutter, level of the solution flow, flow rate of the solution, flow rate of fluid through the sidewall of the gutter, flow rate of solution through nozzles, number of nozzles and distance between them. Based on theoretical studies and a mathematical model describing the motion of metallic and abrasive particles in a detergent solution, a program in the C++ language and in the C++ Builder 6 programming environment was developed. The developed program makes it possible to simulate trajectories of motion of metal and abrasive particles in the detergent solution flow in the gutter. In the mode of random particle parameters, diameter in a range of 18–500 μm for metal particles and in a range of 31–200 μm for abrasive particles is selected