Mechanical and thermal segregation of milli-beads during contact heating in a rotary drum. DEM modeling and simulation.

Abstract

The flow mechanics and heat transfer phenomena within a bed of milli-metric size spherical beads rotated and heated by contact in a horizontal drum were simulated by means of commercial discrete element software EDEM. Mono-dispersed and bi-dispersed beds (two particle sizes or two particle densities) were considered. The mechanical segregation index (standard deviation of local bed compositions) and the thermal segregation index (standard deviation of beads temperatures) were calculated for the different types of bed and same operating conditions. The thermal segregation was found to be enhanced by mechanical segregation and was much stronger for bi-dispersed beds than for monodispersed one.   Keywords: rotating drum; particulate solid; segregation; contact heat transfer; DEM simulation.