TY - JOUR
T1 - Fragmentation of fuel pellets during transport via a belt conveyor
T2 - A design of experiment study
AU - Gilvari, Hamid
AU - van Battum, Coen H.H.
AU - Farnish, Richard
AU - Pang, Yusong
AU - de Jong, Wiebren
AU - Schott, Dingena L.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - This work investigates the proportion of generated fines in a pilot-scale experiment using a belt conveyor and commercial fuel pellets. For this, a belt conveyor with a length of 3.1 m was used and operated at varying conditions: speeds, percentages of material loading on the belt, two combinations of the inclination angle of the belt and the falling height, and a different number of handling steps. We considered a design of experiments approach based on response surface methodology to investigate the effect of different conditions on the potential of fines generation. Moreover, a comparison between the results of the belt conveyor and three common benchmark experimental approaches (tumbling box, rotary impact tester, and mechanical compression test) was made. Results show that the number of handling steps and the combined effect of drop height and inclination angle directly affected the fines generation. However, the tested belt speed range and the level of loading were of lower significance. A polynomial quadratic model was derived based on the regression analysis and showed a high accuracy to predict the proportion of fines. Moreover, the tumbling box method showed good potential to predict the proportion of fines in a belt conveyor when transported several times.
AB - This work investigates the proportion of generated fines in a pilot-scale experiment using a belt conveyor and commercial fuel pellets. For this, a belt conveyor with a length of 3.1 m was used and operated at varying conditions: speeds, percentages of material loading on the belt, two combinations of the inclination angle of the belt and the falling height, and a different number of handling steps. We considered a design of experiments approach based on response surface methodology to investigate the effect of different conditions on the potential of fines generation. Moreover, a comparison between the results of the belt conveyor and three common benchmark experimental approaches (tumbling box, rotary impact tester, and mechanical compression test) was made. Results show that the number of handling steps and the combined effect of drop height and inclination angle directly affected the fines generation. However, the tested belt speed range and the level of loading were of lower significance. A polynomial quadratic model was derived based on the regression analysis and showed a high accuracy to predict the proportion of fines. Moreover, the tumbling box method showed good potential to predict the proportion of fines in a belt conveyor when transported several times.
KW - Belt conveyor
KW - Box–Behnken design
KW - Breakage
KW - Design of experiment
KW - Fuel pellets
KW - Transport
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85118585811&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.partic.2021.08.007
DO - 10.1016/j.partic.2021.08.007
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85118585811
SN - 1674-2001
VL - 66
SP - 29
EP - 37
JO - Particuology
JF - Particuology
ER -