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Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 1887–1900

A reduced efficiency approach-based process model


for a circulating air classifier
C. Eswaraiah, S.S. Narayanan, S. Jayanti ∗
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India
Received 2 November 2006; received in revised form 20 October 2007; accepted 22 October 2007
Available online 21 February 2008

Abstract
The performance of a circulating air classifier has been studied systematically by conducting experiments over a range of process and design
variables. It is found that while the overall induced flow rate is proportional to the speed of rotation of the wheel, the circulation pattern inside
the classifier depends on the configuration of stationary guide vanes. This is found to have a significant effect on the range of operability of the
classifier. Results show that the cut size, sharpness of separation and the bottom and top size selectivity increments are influenced strongly by the
stationary guide vane configuration. Using experimental data from a dense material (fly ash) and a light material (rice husk), a model based on the
reduced efficiency curve approach, originally proposed for hydrocyclones, has been developed to predict the performance of the classifier.
© 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Keywords: Size classification; Circulating air classifier; Grade efficiency; Circulation pattern; Reduced efficiency curve; Similarity

1. Introduction forced vortex created within the classifier and can thus be used
to change the cut size, i.e., the size of the feed particle which
Size classification is an important unit operation in which has an equal probability of appearing in the coarse or the fine
particles of different sizes suspended in a fluid medium are fraction.
separated into coarse and fine fractions based on their settling Rotating wheel air classifiers have been around for several
velocities or densities or other properties. The focus of the decades although a number of design improvements have taken
present study is on the size classification of particles of the same place. Rumpf and co-workers [2,3] led the early work on air
materials. A number of methods are available for classification. classifiers and introduced new ideas such as spiral classifiers
Shapiro and Galperin [1] have reviewed the operational princi- with rotating walls and recycling of the coarse fraction. These
ples and features of a number of modern air classifiers. These enabled a better separation of the coarse and the fine fractions at
include gravitational and centrifugal classifiers of crossflow or smaller cut sizes than what had been possible with other spiral
counterflow type; cascade classifiers; fluidized bed classifiers; classifiers. The Alpine Mikroplex classifier incorporating these
inertial air classifiers; centrifugal classifiers; rotor classifiers, features was the first industrial-scale classifier to achieve cut
and circulating air classifiers. Of these, circulating air classi- sizes in the range of 10 ␮m with a reasonably high sharpness of
fiers are often used for large volume applications such as in the cut even at cut points below 5 ␮m [4]. Variations of the Mikro-
power generation and cement industries where they are used plex spiral classifier are available from other manufacturers. In
to classify coal particles and fly ash, respectively. The advan- some, the wall rotational speed can be adjusted independently
tage of this type of air classifiers is that it does not require of the fan speed, or a secondary air stream is supplied with the
external air from a compressor or a blower for suspending the feed stream to more evenly distribute the particles entering the
particles; an internal fan itself induces the air flow. Varying classification zone. In one design tested by Austin and Luckie
the rotational speed of the fan can change the strength of the [5], the rotor vanes are located at the top of the classifier. The air
is supplied from the bottom. The feed along with a secondary
air stream enters the classifier in a direction perpendicular to
∗ Corresponding author. the primary air stream. The combined streams travel upward to
E-mail address: sjayanti@iitm.ac.in (S. Jayanti). the rotor vanes. Air and the fine fraction pass through the vanes

0255-2701/$ – see front matter © 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.


doi:10.1016/j.cep.2007.10.016
1888 C. Eswaraiah et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 1887–1900

and exit at the top of the classifier. The coarse fraction is fed bulence but that high loading might alter the macroscopic flow
back into the feed stream and is re-classified. In the Accucut pattern due to momentum coupling between the two phases.
classifier [6,7], air is drawn into the classifier from the bottom Johansen and de Silva [11] approached the problem using an
in the direction of the axis of rotation at a radius just outside Eulerian–Lagrangian framework in which field equations were
the vanes. Particles enter in a direction perpendicular to the air used to obtain the carrier gas flow field and particle tracking cal-
stream and mix with the air before passing through the vanes. culations were used to obtain the trajectories of particles through
The rotor vanes are centrally located in the classifier in the axial the flow field subject to centrifugal, drag and other forces. A
direction and occupy nearly the entire height of the classifier. full, three-dimensional model was constructed and the motion
Air and the fine fraction exit through a tube at the axis of the of the rotor blades was taken into account exactly using a rotat-
classifier, while coarse particles exit tangentially. As in the case ing coordinate system. They used the code FLUENT to simulate
of free vortex classifiers, many designs for rotor-vane classifiers the flow field, particle dispersion and grade efficiency for the
send the coarse fraction back into the incoming air to obtain a Accucut A12 classifier rotating at a rotor speed of 3200 rpm.
sharper cut. The MikroCut MC classifier [8] is a new rotor-vane They found that both the flow field and the particle trajectories
classifier that can operate with a centrifugal acceleration of over were more complicated than what one obtained using simple
15,000 × g. Because of this, cut sizes of the order of 1–20 ␮m theories. The predicted grade efficiency was lower than the mea-
for particle densities from 1000 to 4000 kg/m3 can be obtained. sured one for even the smallest particles and they attributed this
Here, air and particles enter the classifier together tangentially. to particle agglomeration arising from long residence times in
A secondary air stream of varying flow rate can also be supplied the classifying zone.
tangentially to the classifier to improve separation of the fine Leschonski and Legenhausen [12] used similarity arguments
fraction from the coarse fraction and to prevent particles from to measure the flow field in water flow through a deflector wheel
being collected before entering the classification zone. air classifier and showed that a free vortex sink flow was formed
In the CFS-HD classifier [4], both free and forced vortex flows in the inner bladeless region which they argued would be detri-
are used for classification. Stationary guide vanes surrounding mental to the cut-size conditions of the classifier. Wang et al.
the rotor vanes are used to create a flow of high shear in the region [13] considered the effect of the blade angle of a horizontal tur-
where the particles are introduced so that these can be dispersed bine air classifier. Using a pneumatic mechanics model for the
before they enter the classification region. The coarse fraction gas velocity, they obtained an expression for the fluid speed dis-
exits tangentially within the periphery of the guide vanes. Air tribution in the turbine passage ways and used this to estimate
and the fines pass through the rotor vanes into an internal, rotor- the drag and centrifugal forces acting on the particle. Since the
vane free area inside the rotor, where the flow is of free vortex gas speed was non-uniform, they argued that a range of particle
type. To achieve a more uniform velocity in the radial direction in sizes would be classified and obtained an analytical expression
this area, the height of the inside of the rotor is made to increase for the maximum classified particle cut size as a function of the
as the radius decreases. In addition, the air and the fine fraction structural parameters of the classifier, the feed material and the
outlet tube is made to rotate in the same direction as the rotor and operating parameters. They conducted experiments in the max-
is extended into the internal area to prevent coarse particles from imum cut-size range of 4–10 ␮m with mica, calcium carbonate,
being carried to the outlet by high radial velocities near the rotor
walls. Nied [4] reported achieving cut sizes of 2 ␮m with this
classifier using limestone of d97 of 35 ␮m as the feed material.
In another class of rotating wheel air classifiers of more recent
origin such as the Sturtevant side draft classifier and the O-Sepa
separator [9] a forced draft of air is introduced to achieve a higher
efficiency of operation than what is possible without external air
supply.
While there has thus been a continuous evolution of the design
of air classifiers, systematic theoretical and modelling studies
are of recent origin. Johansen et al. [10] developed a two-phase
model for particulate flow through a continuous Accucut air
classifier. They solved for the phase fractions of both phases
using field equations in the Eulerian–Eulerian framework exist-
ing in the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code
FLUENT and included the effect of particles on the turbulence
field. The drag reduction associated with the presence of the par-
ticulate phase was incorporated into the boundary conditions.
Only a two-dimensional model of the classifier was considered
and the motion of the rotor blades was treated approximately
by assuming that they imposed a constant angular velocity
on the flow. They found that increased particle loading could
improve the performance of the classifier by damping the tur- Fig. 1. Schematic line diagram of the circulating air classifier.
C. Eswaraiah et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 1887–1900 1889

Fig. 2. Sketch of the observed secondary flow in the classifier with (a) radial vanes and (b) angular vanes.

carbon silicon and alumina as feed materials and showed that of designs have been studied, much of the reported work has
their expression exhibited better sensitivity of the cut size to been focused on cut sizes less than 10 ␮m. Also, the linkage
the turbine blade angle. Bauder et al. [14] reported that CFD between the flow and the resulting classification has not been
simulations using a commercial code gave satisfactory results fully explored. CFD-based studies have been used primarily to
for the cut size and the sharpness of cut for a deflector wheel shed light on the classification process while process models
air classifier. They also conducted systematic experiments to have concentrated on the determination of only the cut size. The
determine the effect of parameters (such as the wheel geome- work reported in the present paper builds on the hydrodynamic
try, classifier size, rotor tip speed, gas throughput, product flow study of a rotating wheel air classifier investigated previously
rate, vortex finder diameter and test material) on the cut size and [19] using computational fluid dynamics simulations. System-
the sharpness of separation. However, they did not present any atic classification experiments have been done over a range
quantitative models. of parameters, and their effect on the classification has been
Most of the recent studies have been conducted for classi- interpreted in the light of the insight gained into the hydro-
fication of particle sizes of less than 10 ␮m [4,8,15]. Particle dynamics of the flow. Using the present experimental data, a
sizes of the order of the 50–100 ␮m are of interest to cement model incorporating appropriate dimensionless groups has been
and power generation industries. For example, the mean size developed to predict the performance of a similar classifier.
of the coal particle used in pulverized coal boilers is typically Details of these studies and the results obtained are discussed
about 70 ␮m. The resulting fly ash, which is used in the cement below.
industry, will also be of similar size. Rotating wheel air classi-
fiers (also called circulating air classifiers [1]) are widely used in
these applications as they can handle high throughputs. Clerc et Table 1
al. [16] conducted a systematic study of pneumatic classification (a) Range of operating parameters for the fly ash experiments
of fly ash obtained from coal combustion in thermal power plants Vane Feed size, Guide vane Fan speed, Feed flow rate,
using the Condux size classifier. They studied the effect of rota- configuration d80 (␮m) angle, θ (◦ ) N (rpm) Wo (kg/h)
tional speed, ash feeding rate and air flow rate on the cut size in Radial 190 5 400 75
a laboratory scale and in an industrial pilot scale classifier. They 30 600 125
found that in both classifiers the cut size depended primarily 60 800 175
on the rotational speed and that it was inversely proportional to Angular 190 5 1200 75
it. Benzer et al. [17] and Kolacz [15] reported on experimental, 30 1450 125
modelling and simulation work on applications in grinding cir- 60 1700 175
cuits. Bhasker [18] presented a CFD simulation model of a coal
(b) Range of operating parameters for the rice husk experiments
classifier concentrating on the geometry creation and the treat-
ment of the flow problem. Recently, the present authors [19] Radial 200 5 300 10
conducted a detailed study of the flow field in a circulating gas 350 15 400 20
550 30 500 40
type rotating wheel air classifier used in thermal power plants
for fly ash classification. Angular 200 5 1200 10
350 15 1450 20
Circulating air classifiers offer an attractive alternative to gas
550 30 1700 40
cyclones for a range of classification duties. Although a number
1890 C. Eswaraiah et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 1887–1900

2. Experimental set-up annulus and eventually to the fine fraction stream. Large parti-
cles which resist this upward drag will come down into the inner
A schematic line diagram of the rotating plate circulating air conical section and fall against the incoming air to be collected
classifier used in the present study is shown in Fig. 1. It con- as the coarse fraction. For a radial stationary vane, the secondary
sists of a cylindro-conical tank of overall height of 0.95 m and flow is downwards in the inner cylindrical section. Hence even
a cylindrical diameter of 0.51 m. Air circulation is induced with the small particles are brought down. As they reach the gap
the help of 16 fan blades mounted on its vertical axis towards between the cylindrical and the conical parts of the classifier,
the top of the cylinder. A set of six semi-cylindrical guide vanes they are entrained by the secondary flow and are carried into
and a horizontal circular plate are mounted further down on the the outer annulus and eventually into the fine fraction. Coarse
same axis and rotate along with the fan blades at the same speed. particles, which have a larger inertia, remain in the central part
The angle of the guide vanes measured from the tangent can be and eventually report to the coarse fraction. However, the actual
changed from 13◦ to 89◦ . The air flow within the classifier can behaviour is complicated by the presence of centrifugal force
also be altered using bottom stationary vanes located at the top and particle–wall collisions, as we shall see later.
of the conical section. Two types of these stationary vanes are
used: the radial vanes, in which the guide vanes make an angle of
90◦ with the circumferential direction, and the angular vanes, in
which the guide vanes make an angle of 30◦ with the circumfer-
ential direction. The solids are fed using a vibratory feeder into
an annular space between the stationary and the rotating shaft.
They fall on to the rotating plate and are discharged radially
into the cylindrical portion of the classifier. Coarse particles fall
against the entering air stream and then move downwards into
the conical section to be discharged through the air inlet pipe for
collection in a filter bag. Fine particles are carried along with the
air flow into the annular region of the classifier and are collected
at the air outlet in another filter bag. A continuously variable
voltage auto transformer can be used to control the speed of the
fan between 0 and 2400 rpm.
The flow field induced in this classifier by the rotation of the
fans (the wheel rotation itself induces little flow) has been studied
previously [19] with the help of CFD simulations and flow visu-
alization experiments. These indicate two major features of the
flow, namely that the velocity is predominantly circumferential
and that a strong recirculation is set up in the upper (cylin-
drical) part of the classifier. The overall velocity field scales
linearly with the fan speed. The direction of the recirculating
flow depends strongly on the type of bottom stationary guide
vanes used. For radial vanes, the secondary flow is such that it
flows upwards in the outer, annular part and comes down in the
inner cylindrical part (Fig. 2a). For angular vanes, the secondary
flow is downwards in the outer, annular section and upwards in
the inner, cylindrical section (Fig. 2b). CFD simulations show
that the volumetric flow rate in this recirculation is twice as much
as the net flow rate through the classifier. Due to the large flow
cross-sectional area, the induced axial velocity in the cylindri-
cal section (where the feed is introduced) is only of the order of
2–3% of the tip speed. However, even this small axial velocity
is sufficient to entrain small particles.
The mechanism of classification is as follows. The flow is
primarily circumferential and the particles move at speeds close
to the local gas velocity. Hence the inertia of the particles is
directly proportional to their size. Classification into coarse and
fine fractions is effected principally by the drag force arising
from the secondary flow. With a stationary angular vane config-
uration, the secondary flow is upwards in the inner cylindrical Fig. 3. Typical results obtained from the classification experiments using fly
section. Small particles thrown off by the rotating disc feeder ash: (a) actual efficiency curves for radial vanes, (b) the corrected efficiency
are entrained by this secondary flow and are taken into the outer curves, and (c) the mass flow split for radial and angular vanes.
C. Eswaraiah et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 1887–1900 1891

Size classification experiments were conducted using fly ash tom vanes and the rotational speed of the wheel (which was
obtained from the Ennore Thermal Power Station, Chennai, regulated by a variac). The rotational speed was maintained
India, and rice husk obtained from the Research & Develop- for several minutes after the feeding was completed in order
ment Division of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), to ensure that all the material was classified. The material col-
Tiruchirapalli, India. Both were acquired in bulk quantity to lected in the fine and the coarse streams was weighed separately
avoid day-to-day variations at the source. The fly ash had a d80 and three samples of each were analyzed for size using a vibra-
of 190 ␮m while the rice husk had a d80 of 550 ␮m. By further tory sieve shaker in the size range of 40–800 ␮m. The vibratory
size reduction using pin and ball mills, two further samples of feeder used in the present study has a capacity of 200 kg/h of
rice husk, having d80 of 350 and 200 ␮m, were also prepared. fly ash and 80 kg/h of rice husk. Typically, the mass fed and the
The density of the feed material was measured using the stan- mass collected in the two streams agreed to within 1%. Similar
dard specific gravity bottle method and by the Helium–Mercury tallying was also found to apply in the sieve analysis. Thus, the
Pycnometer. While the density of the fly ash was found to be overall split into coarse and fine streams and the size distribution
independent of the particle size, the bulk density of the three rice of each stream were found to be repeatable to within a few per
husk samples was found to vary by about 20% (presumably due cent. The range of parameters in which the size classification
to variation in the silica content). The bulk density of rice husk experiments were conducted is summarized in Table 1.
of d80 of 550 ␮m was 1050 kg/m3 while that of 200 ␮m was
1250 kg/m3 . Therefore, the actual density based on the sample
size was used in the analysis. 3. Results from the classification experiments
In a typical classification experiment, the feed was sampled
using the coning and quartering method. One kilogram of the From known size distributions of the feed, the fines and the
material was fed to the classifier using a vibratory feeder at a coarse fractions, the actual efficiency of classification can be
pre-determined feed rate. The classifier was set with the desired calculated [20] as
configuration which is defined by the angle of the rotating guide
mc φc
vanes, the configuration (angular or radial) of the stationary bot- Ea = (1)
mc φc + mf φf

Fig. 4. Variation of the actual cut size d50a for (a) the radial and (b) the angular Fig. 5. Variation of the mass split M for (a) the radial and (b) the angular vane
vane configuration for fly ash at a rotating guide vane angle of 13◦ . configuration for fly ash at a rotating guide vane angle of 13◦ .
1892 C. Eswaraiah et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 1887–1900

where mc is the mass of the material collected in the coarse can be adjusted such that the grade efficiency varies between 0
fraction, mf is the mass of material collected in the fine fraction and 100% by evaluating a “corrected grade efficiency” as
and φc and φf are the cumulative size distribution interval of
Ea − Sb
the coarse and the fines, respectively. The grade efficiency curve Ec = (2)
obtained for a specific case, namely for fly ash at a feed flow rate (1 − Sb − St )
of 175 kg/h with radial stationary vanes and a rotating guide vane and is plotted in Fig. 3b. The corrected cut size, d50c , based on
angle of 13◦ is shown in Fig. 3a for rotational speeds of 400 and the corrected grade efficiency, is 80 ␮m for 400 rpm and 98 ␮m
800 rpm. It can be seen that the actual grade efficiency curve has a for 800 rpm.
distorted S-shape. The cut size, d50 , is the size at which the actual A further measure of classification is the mass flow split (M)
efficiency is 50%. For the above case, the cut size is found to be between the coarse and the fine streams defined as the ratio of
73 and 89 ␮m for wheel speeds of 400 and 800 rpm. All particles mass of material collected in the coarse stream to that collected
below this size can be termed as fine particles and those larger in the fines stream:
can be termed as coarse particles. Fig. 3a shows that, contrary to mc
expectation, a significant fraction of the “fine” particles report M= (3)
mf
to the coarse stream and that the grade efficiency of the lowest
measured size is not zero. Similarly, not all the largest particles When M is large, most of the feed reports to the coarse stream
report to the coarse stream and their collection efficiency is not and when M is small, most of it reports to the fines stream.
100%. These two non-ideal effects, namely the fraction of the Classification is not effective when M is either too small or too
finest particles entering the coarse stream, and the fraction of the large. However, this does not mean that the material is wrongly
largest particles not entering the coarse stream, are expressed as classified. Even an ideal classifier may give very large or very
the bottom size selectivity increment (Sb ) and the top size small values of M if the feed size distribution is highly skewed
selectivity increment (St ), respectively. For the specific cases with respect to the cut size. The measured variation of M with
shown in Fig. 3a, these have values of 16 and 4%, respectively, rotational speed is plotted in Fig. 3c for fly ash at a feed rate
at a rotational speed of 400 rpm and 18 and 7% at a speed of of 175 kg/h for radial and angular vanes. For the given feed and
800 rpm, respectively. The grade efficiency curves in Fig. 3a geometry of the classifier, the radial vane configuration can be
operated only below 800 rpm. Above this speed, nearly all the

Fig. 6. Variation of the bottom size selectivity increment Sb for (a) the radial Fig. 7. Variation of the top size selectivity increment St for fly ash with (a)
and (b) the angular vane configurations for fly ash at a rotating guide vane angle the radial and (b) the angular vane configuration at a rotating guide vane angle
of 13◦ . of 13◦ .
C. Eswaraiah et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 1887–1900 1893

material is collected in the fines stream, presumably due to the With the angular vane, although stronger secondary flow carries
combined, unilateral action of the drag and the centrifugal forces more particles into the outer annular region, it would also drag
in pushing the particles into the outer annular region. With the a larger number of them back into the inner cylindrical section.
angular vane configuration, the centrifugal and the drag forces Hence the net effect is more muted.
at the cylindro-conical section oppose each other and appear to The effect of the wheel speed on the bottom and the top
be finely balanced so that the mass split is not very sensitive to size selectivity increments is subtler. The bottom size selectiv-
the speed in the range of 1200–2400 rpm. ity increment, Sb , is due to the fine particles reporting to the
Details of the variation of the four parameters of classifica- coarse stream. Increasing the wheel speed increases the drag
tion, namely d50a , M, Sb , St , are shown in Figs. 4–7. The force which pushes the fine particles into the fine stream. Since
measured variation of the actual cut size (d50a ) is plotted as a the fine particles would require only a small amount of drag force
function of the fan speed in Fig. 4 for the two stationary vane con- to entrain them, it is to be expected that increasing wheel speed
figurations. The feed material was fly ash with a d80 of 190 ␮m would have only a little effect on Sb (Fig. 6). For an angular
and the rotating guide vanes were fixed at an angle of 13◦ with vane, the secondary flow is such that it would bring small parti-
the tangent. It can be seen that, in both cases, the d50a increases cles into the inner cylindro-conical section. This is reflected in
as the fan speed increases although the effect is more prominent the high values of Sb for the angular vanes as compared to the
for the radial vanes. This can be attributed to the stronger sec- radial vanes. A reverse trend is seen in the top size selectivity
ondary flow at higher wheel speeds which enables even larger increment, St , which is higher for radial vanes than for angular
particles to be carried out into the annulus (and ultimately into vanes (Fig. 7). Non-zero values of St arise because large par-
the fine fraction) through the gap between the cylinder and the ticles report to the fines stream. Normally, one would not expect
cone sections. This shifts the efficiency curve towards the right the largest particles to be affected by the drag to such an extent
leading to an increase in d50a . The effect is more pronounced that they would report to the fines stream. This can therefore
for the radial vanes where the drag and the centrifugal forces act be attributed to particle–wall interaction. With radial vanes, if a
in the same direction (radially outward) at the cylindro-conical large particle is deflected slightly from its circular path, then it
section where the classification takes place. The effect of fan will hit the radial vane at such an angle that upon rebounding it
speed on the mass split, M, is compared in Fig. 5. With radial will move into the fines stream (Fig. 8a). For angular vanes, the
vanes, a stronger secondary flow, created by a higher fan speed, angle of impact is such that the rebounding large particle will
would carry more particles into the fines stream and the mass remain in the central section (Fig. 8b) and will eventually report
split therefore decreases (Fig. 5a) as the fan speed increases. to the coarse fraction.

Fig. 8. Effect of particle–stationary vane interaction for (a) radial vanes and (b) angular vanes.
1894 C. Eswaraiah et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 1887–1900

Fig. 9. Measurements of the induced air flow rate: (a) flow rate variation with fan speed at a rotating guide vane angle of 13◦ , (b) effective gap width for secondary
flow as a function of the rotating guide vane angle, and (c) effect of rotating guide vane angle on induced flow rate.

Thus, the classifier exhibits different performance with the the actual grade efficiency. Details of these models are given
two stationary vanes. The cut size as well as the bottom and top below.
selectivity increments (which determine how much of the very
coarse and of the very fine particles are being wrongly classified) 4.1. Flow model
is affected by the specific values of the variables set in each run.
This influence can be directly related to the flow pattern inside The dynamic forces acting on the particle, namely the cen-
the classifier set-up by the geometrical features. In view of this trifugal force and the drag force, are closely related to the
linkage, a model is developed below to predict the performance velocity field. Hence the induced flow rate through the clas-
of a geometrically similar classifier. sifier was measured using a flow meter for radial and angular
vanes for different positions of the rotating guide vane angles.
4. Development of a mechanistic model The results are shown in Fig. 9. Since radial vanes offer more
resistance to circumferential flow, the induced flow rate is less as
The objective of the model is to predict the actual efficiency compared to the angular vanes at the same fan speed. A smaller
curve for a geometrically similar machine for a given set of rotational guide vane angle means that it offers more resistance
parameters which have been shown to influence the perfor- to flow by reducing the cross-section available to flow (Fig. 9b)
mance, namely the feed material, the feed size and flow rate, and the induced flow rate increases as the rotating guide vane
the fan speed, the type of stationary vanes and the angle of angle increases (Fig. 9c). Previous CFD simulations [19] have
the rotating vanes. The model developed consists of two ele- shown that the velocity field in the classifier scales well with the
ments: a flow model and a classification model. In the flow tip speed of the fan and that the pressure field scales with the
model, correlations in terms of dimensionless variables have dynamic pressure based on the tip speed of the fan. Keeping in
been developed based on flow rate measurements to determine mind the similarity variables used in turbomachinery applica-
the induced flow rate and the power consumed to maintain tions, the induced volumetric flow is correlated to the fan speed,
a constant flow rate. In the classification model, the reduced N, and the angle of the rotating vane, θ, and the angle of the
efficiency curve approach [21] has been used, along with dimen- stationary vane angle, ϕ, which is 90◦ for the radial vanes and
sionless correlations to determine d50c , Sb and St , to predict 30◦ for the angular vanes. The effect of constriction of the flow
C. Eswaraiah et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 1887–1900 1895

cross-sectional area by the rotating guide vanes (Fig. 9b) can be


included in the form of the dimensionless parameter (ge /gmax )
or (1 − (l sin θ/gmax )) where l is the length of the guide vane and
ge and gmax are the effective and maximum gap widths, the latter
being given by gmax = (Dc − Dfp )/2, where Dc and Dfp are the
diameters of the cylinder and the feed plate respectively. The
volumetric flow rate and the fan speed are non-dimensionalized
in the form of flow number, NQ , and Reynolds number, NRe ,
defined as NQ = Qa /ND3 and NRe = ND2 ρa /µa , where N is the
wheel speed in revolutions per second, D is the diameter of the
fan blade (0.35 m), Qa is the volumetric flow rate in m3 /s and
ρa and µa are the density and viscosity of air. Regression anal-
ysis of the present data yields the following correlation for the
induced air flow rate:
ge 0.1
 
NQ = K1 (ϕ)(NRe )0.85 (4)
gmax
Fig. 10. Measured variation of power consumption with fan speed for radial and
where angular vanes.

K1 = 4.8 × 10−7 , for ϕ = 30◦ (angular vane)


−7
K1 = 2.5 × 10 , for ϕ = 90◦ (radial vane)

Fig. 11. Measured reduced efficiency curve for fly ash as a function (a) fan speed in rpm, (b) feed mass flow rate in kg/h, (c) type of stationary guide vanes, and (d)
rotating guide vane angle in degrees.
1896 C. Eswaraiah et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 1887–1900

Fig. 12. Measured reduced efficiency curve for rice husk as a function of (a) fan speed in rpm, (b) feed mass flow rate in kg/h, (c) type of stationary guide vanes, (b)
angle of rotating guide vanes in degrees, and (e) feed size in microns.

The above correlations are valid in the following ran- 4.2. Power consumption
ges.
Power consumption studies for the rotating wheel classifier
0.001 ≤ NQ ≤ 0.02; have not been reported in the literature. In view of this, exper-
iments were conducted in which the power consumed to keep
50, 000 ≤ NRe ≤ 250, 000;
the fan rotating at a certain speed was measured directly from
ge
0.25 ≤ ≤ 0.75 an energy meter connected to the power supply unit. There was
gmax no feed of the solid material during these measurements. The
C. Eswaraiah et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 1887–1900 1897

fan speed was maintained constant, typically for 30 min, and the different feed rates (Fig. 11b), different stationary vane con-
energy meter readings were taken for every 10 min. A nearly figurations (Fig. 11c) and different rotating guide vane angles
linear variation of the power consumption (Fig. 10) with the fan (Fig. 11d). The corresponding data obtained for rice husk is
speed was obtained for both stationary bottom vane configura- plotted in Fig. 12; in addition, the data obtained for different
tions. As expected, the power consumption (P) for the radial feed sizes is plotted in Fig. 12e. These plots confirm that, within
vanes was higher by 20–30% over the angular vanes at the same the range of parameters varied in the present study and within
fan speed. Following the practice in turbomachinery, the follow- the bounds of experimental uncertainty, the reduced efficiency
ing non-dimensional correlation between the flow number (NQ ) curve is dependent largely on the feed material and not on other
and the power number (NP ) has been developed: parameters. In view of this, the consolidated results for fly ash
and rice husk were used to estimate the reduced efficiency curve
NP = K2 (NQ )−3.33 (5)
parameter, α, and it was found (Fig. 13) that values of 4.3 and
where 2.5 gave a good fit to the data for fly ash and rice husk respec-
tively. It is noted [21] that these values are consistent with those
K2 = 2.2 × 10−8 for the radial vane
expected for dense and light particles, respectively.
= 7.9 × 10−8 for the angular vane The corrected efficiency curve can now be calculated from
and the reduced efficiency curve if d50c is known. The present exper-
P
NP =
N 3 D5 ρ

4.3. Classification model

Early studies by Lynch and co-workers [21–23] showed that


for a hydrocylone, an appropriate non-dimensionalization, from
the point of view of performance prediction, of the grade effi-
ciency curve is the reduced efficiency defined as
   
d exp(αd/d50c ) − 1
Ec = (6)
d50c exp(αd/d50c ) + exp(α) − 2
where α is the reduced efficiency curve parameter. It was found
(see, for example, Lynch and Rao [22]; Lynch and Narayanan
[23]) that the reduced efficiency curve was invariant with design
and operating conditions and that the parameter α was a func-
tion of the feed material. Since the rotating wheel classifier
shares some features of the hydrocyclone, the applicability of the
reduced efficiency curve approach to air classifiers was investi-
gated using the present data. The measured corrected efficiency
for fly ash is plotted in Fig. 11 for different fan speeds (Fig. 11a),

Fig. 13. Reduced efficiency curves obtained from the present data for fly ash
(thick line, α = 4.3) and rice husk (thin line, α = 2.5). Fig. 14. Algorithm for optimization using the present process model.
1898 C. Eswaraiah et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 1887–1900

the following dimensionless correlation:


 0.10 
ge 0.40
  −0.25
d50c ρs 0.9 wo
= 0.48 (sinϕ) (7)
d80 ρa gmax ṁa
Here, wo and ṁa are the mass flow rates of the solid feed (which is
an independent variable) and of the air, respectively. The induced
air flow rate is calculated using the correlation developed earlier.
Comparison with the data shows that the correlation predicts the
data of d50c with a mean relative error of 25%.
Finally, the actual efficiency curve can be reconstructed if the
top and the bottom size selectivity increments are known. Using
the present data, the following correlations have been developed
to calculate these:
 −0.30 
ge −0.10 d50c −0.40
  
ρs
Sb = 50 (sinϕ)−0.8
ρa gmax d80
(NQ )−0.2 (8)

ge 0.15
 −0.50 

ρs
St = 400 (sinϕ)0.50
ρa gmax
d50c 0.70 wo −0.10
   
× (9)
d80 ṁa

These correlations are valid in the following range of dimen-


sionless groups:
Fig. 15. Comparison between measured and predicted grade efficiency curve ρs ge
850 ≤ ≤ 2050; 0.25 ≤ ≤ 0.75;
for fly ash (a) for a radial vane configuration at a fan speed of 700 rpm and a ρa gmax
feed flow rate of 75 kg/h and (b) for an angular vane configuration at a fan speed
wo
of 1300 rpm and a feed flow rate of 125 kg/h. 0.14 ≤ ≤ 64; 0.5 ≤ sinϕ ≤ 1.0;
ṁa
d50c
0.001 ≤ NQ ≤ 0.02; 0.27 ≤ ≤ 1.15
imental data have been used to develop a correlation for d50c in d80
terms of dimensionless numbers involving rotating guide vane
angle, stationary bottom vane configuration angle and feed mate- 4.4. Verification of the model
rial. It was found that the data from different feed materials could
be combined using the dimensionless group ρs /ρa , i.e., the ratio The overall algorithm for the prediction of performance of a
of the particle density to the fluid (air) density. Similarly, the data geometrically similar machine is as follows. For given geometric
from different particle size groups could be brought together by and feed information, namely D, d80 and ρs , a suitable value of
including d80 of the feed size in the correlation. Regression anal- α (4.3 for a dense medium such as fly ash and 2.5 for a light
ysis of the present data consisting of 188 data points resulted in material such as rice husk) is chosen and the reduced efficiency

Table 2
Operating conditions for the additional experiments carried to verify the model
S. No. Feed material Feed rate (kg/h) Fan speed, N (rpm) Guide vane angle, θ (◦ ) Feed size, d80 (␮m) Bottom vane angle, ϕ (◦ )

1 Fly ash 75 500 13 190 90


2 Fly ash 75 600 13 190 90
3 Fly ash 75 700 13 190 90
4 Fly ash 125 1300 13 190 30
5 Fly ash 175 1300 13 190 30
6 Fly ash 125 1600 13 190 30
7 Fly ash 175 1600 13 190 30
8 Fly ash 125 1800 13 190 30
9 Rice husk 20 1300 13 200 30
10 Rice husk 40 1300 13 200 30
C. Eswaraiah et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 1887–1900 1899

Fig. 16. Comparison with the verification data of (a) d50a , (b) Sb , and (c) St .

curve is plotted using Eq. (6). For specified operating parameters, similarity analysis. However, it has not been possible to conduct
namely N, D, θ, φ and feed rate, correlations (7)–(9) are used to experiments on a different classifier to validate the complete
calculate d50c , Sb and St . Using these, the actual efficiency model. In order to verify the accuracy of process model, addi-
for a specific particle size, d, can be calculated as tional experiments have been conducted on the same machine.
The operating conditions for these 10 runs are summarized in
Ea (d) = Sb + Ec (d)(1 − Sb − St ) (10) Table 2 and these cover the variation in the principal variables,
namely fan speed, feed material, feed rate and the stationary vane
From the actual efficiency curve, the parameters of practical configuration. The speeds used in these experiments are differ-
interest such as d50a , mass split, the fraction of coarse particles ent from those used in the earlier experiments. Some of the feed
(of size greater than a given size as per process interest) in the rates are also different. Thus, this constitutes an independent set
fines stream and the fraction of fines (of a size less than a given of data, although it is obtained from the same experimental set-
size of process interest) in the coarse stream, etc. can be calcu- up. The actual efficiency curve calculated using the above model
lated. The power consumption corresponding to these conditions is compared in Fig. 15 for two cases and Fig. 16 compares the
is calculated from Eq. (5). If the performance is not satisfactory, predicted d50a , Sb , and St . Reasonably good agreement is
then the selected operating conditions can be revised to obtain obtained between the two. Since the model is formulated in terms
a more desirable performance. This process is summarized in of important dimensionless groups, it can be recommended for
Fig. 14. application to a geometrically similar machine in the following
The flow model for the classifier is based on similarity range of dimensionless parameters:
principles established for turbomachinery applications and is ρs ge
850 ≤ ≤ 2050; 0.25 ≤ ≤ 0.75;
therefore expected to be applicable for a geometrically simi- ρa gmax
lar classifier. The reduced efficiency curve approach, which is wo
a non-dimensional representation, is also expected to be a dif- 0.14 ≤ ≤ 64; 0.5 ≤ sin ϕ ≤ 1.0; 0.001 ≤ NQ ≤ 0.02;
ṁa
ferently sized but similar machine. Although the correlations
used to quantify the classification parameters (Eqs. (7)–(9)) are d50c
0.27 ≤ ≤ 1.15; 50, 000 ≤ NRe ≤ 250, 000.
in terms of dimensionless groups, they are not strictly based on d80
1900 C. Eswaraiah et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 1887–1900

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[8] J. Galk, W. Peukert, J. Krahnen, Industrial classification in a new impeller
completely validate the model.
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flow conditions in a circulating air classifier. The speed of rota- [11] S.T. Johansen, S.R. de Silva, Some considerations regarding flow fields
tion of the fan, the feed flow rate and the angle of rotating guide for centrifugal air classification, Int. J. Miner. Process. 44–45 (1996) 703–
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wheel classifiers, Chem. Eng. Process. 31 (1992) 131–136.
prevailing flow pattern.
[13] X. Wang, X. Ge, X. Zhao, Z. Wang, A model for performance of the cen-
Analysis of the classification data showed that the reduced trifugal countercurrent air classifier, Powder Technol. 98 (1998) 171–176.
efficiency curve approach used to parametrize hydrocylone data [14] A. Bauder, F. Muller, R. Polke, Investigations concerning the separation
is applicable to the present classifier. The values of 2.5 and 4.3 mechanism in deflector wheel classifiers, Int. J. Miner. Process. 74S (2004)
have been obtained for the reduced efficiency curve parameter S147–S154.
[15] J. Kolacz, Investigating flow conditions in dynamic air classification, Miner.
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Eng. 15 (2002) 131–138.
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