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Granular gas bed filters have been used in industry for a considerable period and mathematical descriptions of dust capture have allowed rigorous design of static beds. Provision for bed movement and electrostatic augmentation, which allows much thinner continuous beds to be used, requires adaptation of design methods for these phenomena. Design methods that allow for this are developed for a cross-flow bed with vertical bed movement and a number of granule and dust types. Direct current charging is applied to the bed itself and to the particles before they enter the bed. In the case of electrostatic augmentation, it is shown that simple models of spherical particles describe the mechanism adequately. The advantages of pre-charging dust particles before they enter the bed are indicated by calculation and proved experimentally. Parameters to describe the enhancement of filtration efficiency by the collected dust are obtained experimentally. It is shown that the factors controlling re-entrainment vary with particle size. For the dust particles less than 1,5 micrometers in size, re-entrainment is linked closely to the electrostatic capture mechanism which is dominant in that size range. For particles approaching 10 micrometer, re-entrainment can be neglected as the impaction efficiency, which is dominant for particles of this size and larger, approaches unity. A complex situation exists between these particle sizes as the magnitude and predominance of capture mechanisms in this region are determined by a number of operational parameters. It did not prove possible to develop predictive equations for re-entrainment efficiency using the results of this study. A number of heuristics are however developed that allow rational design by the use of the empirical parameters found, and that will be valid for the range of parameters used in this work. / Thesis (PhD(Chemical Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Chemical Engineering / unrestricted

In situ planetary effective thermal conductivity measurements are typically made using a long needle-like probe, which measures effective thermal conductivity in the probe‟s radial (horizontal) direction. The desired effective vertical thermal conductivity for heat flow calculations is assumed to be the same as the measured effective horizontal thermal conductivity. However, it is known that effective thermal conductivity increases with increasing compressive pressure on granular beds and horizontal stress in a granular bed under gravity is related to the vertical stress through Jaky‟s at-rest earth pressure coefficient. No research has been performed previously on determining the anisotropic effective thermal conductivity of dry granular beds under compressive uniaxial pressure. The objectives of this study were to examine the validity of the isotropic property assumption and to develop a fundamental understanding of the effective thermal conductivity of a dry, noncohesive granular bed under uniaxial compression. Two experiments were developed to simultaneously measure the effective vertical and horizontal thermal conductivities of particle beds. One measured effective thermal conductivities in an atmosphere of air. The second measured effective thermal conductivities in a vacuum environment. Measurements were made as compressive vertical pressure was increased to show the relationship between increasing pressure and effective vertical and horizontal thermal conductivity. The results of this experiment show quantitatively the conductivity anisotropy for different materials. Based on the effective thermal conductivity models in the literature and results of the two experiments, a simple model was derived to predict the increase in effective vertical and horizontal thermal conductivity with increasing compressive vertical applied pressure of a granular bed immersed in a static fluid. In order to gain a greater understanding of the anisotropic phenomenon, finite element simulations were performed for a vacuum environment. Based on the results of the finite element simulations, the simple derived model was modified to better approximate a vacuum environment. The experimental results from the two experiments performed in this study were used to validate both the initial simple model and the modified model. The experimental results also showed the effects of mechanical properties and size on the anisotropic effective thermal conductivity of granular beds. This study showed for the first time that compressive pressure-dependent effective thermal conductivity of granular beds is an anisotropic property. Conduction through the fluid has been shown to have the largest contribution to the effective thermal conductivity of a granular bed immersed in a static fluid. Thermal contact resistance has been shown to have the largest influence on anisotropic effective thermal conductivity of a granular bed in a vacuum environment. Finally, a discussion of future work has been included.

La problématique de l’homogénéité de traitement mécanique et thermique d’un lit particulaire bi-disperse en tailles ou en densités dans un tambour tournant horizontal a été abordée. Dans la première partie, le mélange des billes sphériques millimétriques dans un tambour de type ‘tranche’ a été observé expérimentalement à l’aide des maquettes originales et simulé numériquement à l’aide d’un code commercial de type DEM. En ajustant le coefficient de frottement entre les billes, un accord satisfaisant a été obtenu entre les résultats des simulations et des expériences. Le lit a été globalement caractérisé par l’indice de ségrégation radial, la répartition des billes dans la couche frontale et l’angle de talus dynamique. Des phénomènes importants de ségrégation radiale et axiale ont été mis en évidence. Une réduction très significative de l’indice de ségrégation radiale a été obtenue dans le cas des ailettes multiples et longues par rapport au cas avec peu d’ailettes courtes ou pas d’ailettes. Dans la deuxième partie, le chauffage des billes par contact avec la paroi périphérique du tambour a été simulé par la méthode DEM. Des lits mono-disperse, bi-disperse (comme dans la partie 1), et à dispersion gaussienne ont été considérés. Les indices de ségrégation mécanique et thermique ont été comparés pour les différents types de lits et différentes configurations d’ailettes. L’intensité de la ségrégation thermique a été renforcée, dans l’ensemble, par la ségrégation mécanique et a été la plus forte pour le lit bi-disperses en densités. L’augmentation de la hauteur et du nombre des ailettes a considérablement amélioré l’homogénéité thermique du lit et la vitesse globale de chauffage / Product homogeneity issue during mechanical and thermal processing of a bi-dispersed bed with two particles’ sizes or two particles’ densities in a horizontal rotary drum was considered. In the first part, the mixing of milli-metric size spherical beads in a two-dimensional drum was simulated by means of a commercial discrete element software and optically observed in a specially designed laboratory scale device. The spatial distribution of the particles in the front bed section, the radial mechanical segregation index and the dynamic slope angle were analyzed. After adjusting the friction coefficient, the simulation results were close to the experimental ones. Important phenomena of radial and axial segregation have been highlighted. The radial segregation index was found to be significantly decreased by applying an important number of long baffles, while using few short baffles had practically no influence on segregation intensity. In the second part, the heating of the bed of spherical beads in a 2D drum with hot peripheral wall was simulated by means of the discrete element software. Mono-dispersed, gaussian-dispersed and bi-dispersed beds (same as in part 1) were considered. The mechanical segregation and the thermal segregation indexes were calculated for the different types of bed and for different baffles configurations. The thermal segregation was found to be generally enhanced by the mechanical segregation and reached its highest values for the bi-density bed. Increasing the number and the length of the baffles considerably improved the overall heating rate and the thermal homogeneity of the considered beds