CFD Modelling of Multi-Particulate Flow through Concentric Annulus

In this investigation, flow of multiparticulate lodaded liquid through concentric annulus has been considered with the consideration of rotating inner wall. The present work guides the research studies for petroleum industries in the field of wellbore drilling. The hole-cleaning issue is of utmost importance for the wellbore drilling applications. In oil-well drilling, the horizontal drilling is given more priority. The behaviour of hole cleaning is analyzed through various parameters like axial inlet flow velocity of particulate flow, inner cylinder rotational speed and inlet solid cuttings particle concentration. The effect of these aforementioned parameters on the distribution of solid-phase concentration is studied. Flow is taken as steady, incompressible and multi-particulate slurry flow with primary medium (which carries the solid phase) being water and silica sand with 6 different sizes as the six different phases. The present flow simulation has been done by taking the Eulerian approach. The shape of Silica sand is considered as spherical. ANSYS FLUENT has been used for modelling and solution. Graphs for comparison are obtained using Microsoft Excel.

Mixing enhancement of wheat granules in a hopper bottom lab-scale mixer using discrete element simulations

In the agricultural industry, the conservation of wheat grains in silos after stocking is a hard task. This is because when stocking a large crop, hot aeration from the bottom of the silo is not sufficient to preserve the crop and avoid losses due to the manifestation of moisture between grains and grains-wall. As a concern, engineers, as well as inspectors, challenged day-to-day issues whenever packing such granular material. A screw could be a good solution to improve the dryness of the particles and mix the bed material in case of stocking different types of grains. Mainly, the complexity does emanate from the model used to predict accurately the mixing performance. Emerging generation of simulation codes using the discrete element method (e.g., EDEM®, LIGGGHTS, etc.) have brought an intact solution to the problem of particulate flow and particles inhomogeneity. The present work has sought to develop predictive models for average mixing index and particles velocity distribution assessments in mixing of wheat granules in a small-scaled hopper base screw mixer. A screw-mated-horizontal-ploughs has been utilized to improve the agitation of grains rather than a simple screw. 1, 2 and 4 mated ploughs to the screw axle has been used, also the tilt angle of the 4 mated ploughs case has been varied as follows; 20°, 45° and 70° then evaluated. Next, findings regarding bed homogeneity are calculated using the Lacey method [1] for quantitative analysis and visual observations have been read out for qualitative assessment. Particles inhomogeneity is at its minimum when more ploughs mated to the screw were used.