CFD-DEM study of air entrainment in falling particle plumes

Dust Suppression Analysis of a New Spiral Hopper Using CFD-DEM Simulations and Experiments

A new dust suppression hopper with a spiral guide plate embedded in the conventional hopper is proposed for the dust suppression of hopper transfer processes in this article. The Computational Fluid Dynamics-Discrete Element Method (CFD-DEM) coupling numerical method is used to investigate the particle motion and flow field distribution of the hopper transfer process. The experiment is undertaken to determine dust suppression performance. The results show that the maximum particle velocity for the spiral hopper is dropped by 1.6 m/s compared to the conventional hopper, which means the collision of the particles and the spiral hopper is weakened. The axial airflow velocity of the spiral is reduced. In addition, the maximum dust concentration of the spiral hopper inlet is reduced by 56.9% due to the impact velocity of particles is small, and the secondary fugitive dust is controlled inside a semi-closed space formed by the spiral guide plate. It is thus concluded that the spiral hopper provides an effective way in dust control.