Title: CFD Investigation of Dust Particle Elutriation in Plastic Pellet Industry

Abstract

As elutriator, or an apparatus used to separate suspended solid particles according to size, have been used in the plastic industry regarding dust particles such as streamer or angel hair elimination, there is a need to observe the effectiveness of this control process to produce cleaner plastic pellet. In doing so theoretically, some recent studies show differences in particle size are exploited when they are subjected to an upward flowing current of fluid, leading to separation into size-based underflow and overflow streams. The tendency of a particle to report to either stream is dependent on its terminal sedimentation velocity, as well as the upward velocity of the fluid. Where the terminal velocity exceeds the fluid velocity, the particle will settle against the current and report to the underflow and vice versa. This research will recreate the flow using computational fluid dynamics application to help us understand the variation of particle size or density of particles leading to different sedimentation velocities in the separation process.

Introduction

Figure 1 Bend pipe effect

Figure 2 A) streamer, B) angel hair, C) Fine (Dust)

Plastic pellets, also introduced as nurdles, are the building blocks for almost every product made of plastic. About the size of a lentil, plastic pellets are produced by petrochemical chemical companies and transported to plastic manufacturing facilities where they are melted down and shaped into a final product. In 2015, it is estimated that 270 million metric tons of plastic are produced around the globe every year, much of which begins its life as a plastic pellet.

One typical problem along this industry is that producing plastic pellet always comes with some contaminants or dust which need to be removed. Those matters occur naturally in products like minerals, food, tablets, and other bulk solids, while others are caused by the way the products are handled. Impurities in plastic pellets, both fines (dust) and angel hair (streamers), are generated by the friction in conveying lines. Dilute phase systems create large amounts of dust and streamers; the higher the velocity, the larger the amounts of impurities.

For instance, as depicted in figure 1, these bends cause pellets to hit the inner wall of the elbow. Depending on the resin properties, elbow design, and air velocities, some resins get deflected to other areas of the elbow and some get deflected back to the air stream. Most slide against the elbow wall. This sliding generates frictional heat. pellets with low melting points, soften and smear along the wall. This smearing happens fast, and once started, it often grows as incoming pellets rub against the existing smear. Incoming conveyed pellets randomly break off the smeared plastic into long, ribbon-like strands, almost like loose bird’s nests which are called angel hair.

Cleaning bulk solids in the plastics industry is important to improve the quality of both the pellets and the finished plastic product. Dust and angel hair can contaminate resins at the receiver, including changing the resin’s properties and color. This problem also leads to lower quality end products such as weak spots in fibers, blurry surfaces resulting from vaporized dust particles, flaws in wire insulation, etc. the mixture of these impurities with unaffected resin often plugging a feed area and eventually starving a receiver. These clogged vent or duct resulting in shorter machine and equipment lifespan wherein increasing factory cost.

Therefore, separators based on a variation of density, size, and geometry are necessary to overcome the problem. Typical separator like screening isn’t appropriate for fines removal because the thread-like angel hair gets stuck in the mesh openings and gradually blinds the screen. While it is true that using airflow is very effective, the cyclonic separator is also unfavored since the movement along the cylindrical chamber would generate additional dust due to surface friction. This is why elutriator stands compared to the other method.

In a simple elutriator, as shown in Figure 2, the multiphase fluid flow will enter vertically into the elutriation chamber through the inlet located at the top of the elutriator. This flow will then be channeled to a diffuser at the center of the cylinder so that the fluid flow will form an annulus dome between the diffuser and the apparatus wall and the plastic pellet is evenly distributed. This distribution allows all pellets to be exposed to the wash air that blows upward and the elutriation will run optimally. In the elutriation zone, dust and contaminants that are relatively light will rise upwards and form an overflow. This overflow is discharged from the elutriator to a dust collector. Simultaneously, the plastic pellets will slowly fall down and form an underflow to the elutriator’s outlet, where a rotary airlock valve continuously discharges the pellets to the downstream process. In a pressure conveying system, the valve’s airlock function minimizes the leaking flow of wash air from the elutriator outlet, and in a vacuum conveying system, it minimizes airflow entering the elutriator.

Elutriation Principle

The interaction of particles moving through a fluid or in reverse is the basis of elutriation. Elutriation (the converse of sedimentation) is where a fluid (usually a gas) is forced through a powder bed, and can thus be used to determine particle size distributions. The elutriator utilizes a rising current of fluid to sweep the system free of particles smaller than a specific size. When the velocity of a rising current in a fluid system equals the terminal settling velocity of certain particle size, the particles remain stationary in the rising fluid. Larger particles have a greater terminal velocity and will settle toward the bottom. The size of a particle that remains suspended in a rising current of a given velocity will herein be referred to as the critical size. The settling velocity of particles in a rising current of fluid is governed by Stokes's Law. Therefore, A. Doroszkowski formulated the wash air velocity as follows:

Terminal-velocity constants for common shaped particles are

The particles can be fractionated according to size by varying the quantity of air passing through the air jets or by altering the size of the elutriation chamber. One can thus obtain a cumulative size distribution by collecting the various fractions in settling containers. Since different elutriators are difficult to govern generally, each plant must be analyzed particularly.

Objectives

Using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) application, the objectives of this study are as follows:

1. Performing CFD simulation of elutriation in selected geometry using various parameters from literatures

2. Investigating the relation between inlet velocity of wash fluid and the plastic pellet density in elutriation chamber.

3. Verifying the results through residual (or relative change) convergence test

4. Validating the results to existing study or literature.

Methodology

The gas-solid flow in this present CFD study will be simulated using the MP-PIC method in a common elutriator model. The geometry is inspired by Elutriator GSE produced by Zeppelin Systems GmBH® and modified or modeled using Autodesk Inventor 2019. This CFD itself is simulated with CFDSOF-NG® software, a CFD software developed by CCIT Group Indonesia with the capability of simulating a wide range of fluid flow and heat transfer phenomena on complex geometry. The final result showing the pressure distribution and the development of wash air velocity due to variance of pellet size will be compared to the analytical solution above to verify the simulation.

MP-PIC (Multi-phase Particle-in-cell)

Geometry Model