Estudo da dinâmica de escoamento da unidade Microwave Paddle Dryer

Abstract

Over the last few years, industrial microwave drying has been developed and is an innovative alternative for decontamination of drill cuttings. The results presented in the literature reveal that this technology has the potential to reduce organic phase contents to levels below 1% by mass. An experimental unit, called Microwave Paddle Dryer (MPD) was developed, which will allow for more effective evaluation of ways to increase process efficiency and reduce equipment dimensions, as well as evaluate the efficiency of introducing mechanized paddles to promote material agitation. As drying tests are in the initial phase, understanding the dynamic behavior is of fundamental importance in equipment modeling and application development. In this context, numerical simulations emerge as an important tool in understanding the phenomena that occur in mixing systems. Thus, this work aimed to apply the Lagrangian methodology in the characterization of the granular flow of the Microwave Paddle Dryer and to study the effect of operational variables: blade rotation velocity, bed height and particle diameter on the dynamics of transport and mixing flow. of the granular material inside the dryer. The chosen material used in this work was soybeans, due to its high sphericity, wide availability and DEM parameters already raised by a vast literature. Calibration of the rolling and static particle-particle and particle-wall friction coefficients was performed. These parameters were evaluated in a CCD (Central Composite Design) and compared with the values obtained experimentally. Through image analysis, the numerical and experimental segregation indices were determined. After the calibration process, several simulations were carried out from another proposed CCD, evaluating the effect of operational variables on the average velocity throughout the bed and in 5 defined regions. Although the calibration was carried out for soybeans, the effect of diameter in the simulations was investigated due to other types of materials that will be used in the future in the dryer. The results showed that the speed of rotation of the blades and the particle diameter had the greatest influences on the response. The average velocity of the particles had little influence on the bed height, showing similarities with previous works in paddle equipment. It was identified that the feeding region presented a stagnation zone because it does not have paddles to carry out the agitation and because of the end wall effect. The Lagrangian methodology proved to be a promising tool for the analysis of dryer flow.