Design and Analysis of

Screw Conveyor

Guided by :
Dr. D. S. Sharma

Presented by :
Gandhi
Keyur(08MME004)
M.Tech (CAD/CAM)

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Outline of Presentation

Introduction to Screw Conveyor

Major Screw Conveyor Components
Types of Screw Flight
Types of pitch
IS code using for designing
Design of screw conveyor
Matlab program for screw conveyor design
Modeling of screw conveyor
Exploded View of Screw Conveyor
Powder property and screw conveyor capacity
Effect of vortex motion on the Volumetric Performance of Enclosed Screw
Conveyors
System for Conveyor Equipment Selection
Future Work of Project
References
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Introduction to screw
conveyor
Screw conveyors are widely used for transporting
and/or elevating particulates at controlled and
steady rates.
They are used in many bulk material applications
in industries ranging from industrial minerals,
agriculture (grains), pharmaceuticals, chemicals,
pigments, plastics, cement, sand, salt and food
processing.
They are also used for metering (measuring the
flow rate) from storage bins and adding small
controlled amounts of trace materials such as
pigments to granular materials or powders.
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Major Screw Conveyor

Components:
Hopper or Bin
Stationary screw casing (tubular,
open or covered trough)
Rotating screw.

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Types of Screw
Flight

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Types of pitch
Standard Full Pitch P/D = 1
Used for conveying material horizontally
or on slight inclines.
Half Pitch P/D = 0.5
Used in screw feeders, also in conveyors
where material is being conveyed up an
incline.
Double Flight Full Pitch P/D = 0.25
Used in conveyors where an even discharge
of materials is required.
Ribbon
Used in conveyors to convey sticky materials.
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Cut
Used in conveyors where mixing
materials is desired.
Cut and Fold
Used in conveyors where high levels
of mixing materials and increased
retention time is desired.
Varied Pitch
Used in screw feeders, short pitch
below inlet, full pitch beyond to allow
material loading to drop.
Cone with Consistent Pitch
Used in screw feeders where an
even loading across the inlet length
is desired.
Cone with Varied Pitch
Used in screw feeders where a
specific loading across the inlet
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IS code using for designing

IS 5563 :1985 Screw conveyor for
industrial use
IS 13324 :1982 Screw Feeders
IS 12960 :1990 Determination of
power
requirement of
screw
feeder
general
requirement
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Design calculation
Q = V. = 60 /4 D2.S.n...c

V = volumetric capacity (m3)

= Bulk Density of the material (kg/m3)
D = nominal diameter of screw conveyor(m)
S = screw pitch (m)
N = R.P.M. of screw
= loading efficiency of screw
C = factor to take into amount the inclination
of screw conveyor
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Matlab program for screw conveyor

design

Q = input('Enter the capacity of conveyor in tons / hour : ')

th = input('Enter the inclination of conveyor degree : ')
if th>=0&&th<5
inclinationfactorC=1
elseif th>=5&&th<=9
inclinationfactorC=.9
elseif th>=10&&th<=14
inclinationfactorC=.8
elseif th>=15&&th<=19
inclinationfactorC=.7
elseif th==20
inclinationfactorC=.65
else
inclinationfactorC=.5
end
Length = input('Enter the length of conveyor in metres : ')
Bulk_Density = input('Enter the Bulk Density of conveying material in kg/cubic metre : ')
conveying_material = input('Enter the type of conveying material \n press 1 for abresive,\n press 2 for midly
abresive and \n press 3 for non abresive and free to flow : ')

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Matlab program for screw conveyor

design

switch conveying_material
case 1
progress_resistance_coefficient = 4
loading_efficiency = 0.125
%fprintf('loading efficiency of conveying material is=%f\n',loading_efficiency)
case 2
progress_resistance_coefficient = 2.5
loading_efficiency = 0.275
%fprintf('loading efficiency of conveying material is=%f\n',loading_efficiency)
case 3
progress_resistance_coefficient = 2.5
loading_efficiency = 0.425
%fprintf('loading efficiency of conveying material is=%f\n',loading_efficiency)
otherwise
disp('Unknown conveying_material ')
end
Pitch_to_Diameter_Ratio = input('Enter the Pitch to Diameter Ratio of conveyor between 0.75 to 1.0 :')
speed = input('Enter the speed of conveyor in RPM :')
diameter_of_conveyor = ((Q*4)/
(22/7*60*Pitch_to_Diameter_Ratio*speed*loading_efficiency*Bulk_Density*inclinationfactorC))^(1/3)
fprintf('diameter_of_conveyor =%f metre\n',diameter_of_conveyor)
power_req = Q/367*progress_resistance_coefficient*Length + Length * sin(th*3.14*2) + (diameter_of_conveyor *
Length)/20
fprintf('power_req = %f kilowatt \n',power_req)

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Matlab run program

Enter the capacity of conveyor in tons / hour : 50

Q=

0.1250

50

Enter the Pitch to Diameter Ratio of conveyor between 0.75 to 1.0 :1

Enter the inclination of conveyor degree : 15

th =

Pitch_to_Diameter_Ratio =

15

inclinationfactorC =
0.7000

Enter the length of conveyor in metres : 25

Length =

loading_efficiency =

1
Enter the speed of conveyor in RPM :50
speed =
50

25

diameter_of_conveyor =

Enter the Bulk Density of conveying material in ton / cubic metre : 1.6
Bulk_Density =

1.6000
Enter the type of conveying material
press 1 for abresive,
press 2 for midly abresive and
press 3 for non abresive and free to flow : 1

conveying_material =

1
progress_resistance_coefficient =

0.5331
diameter_of_conveyor =0.533112 metre

power_req =
13.0963
power_req = 13.096333 kilowatt

For 50 ton/hour output capacity

Ans : Diameter = 533 mm
Power req. = 13.KW
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Modeling
screw conveyor
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EXPLODED VIEW OF SCREW

CONVEYOR

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Powder property and screw

conveyor capacity
Coarse powders will flow into the screw easier
than fine powders.
The screw capacity will also be higher if a
dense powder is used.
Particle with a round shape have lower internal
friction that results in a greater screw capacity.
The clearance and the free length of the
intake have a big influence on screw capacity.
No correlation between conveying length and
conveyor capacity was found.[1]
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Effect of vortex motion on the

Volumetric Performance of Enclosed
Screw Conveyors
Vortex motion arises as a result of internal
friction, friction between the granular material
and surface of the helical blade.
The vortex motion, together with the degree of
fill govern the volumetric efficiency. [2]

= Rotational or vortex efficiency

= Fullness Efficiency =
= Average height of material on the screw
surface.
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System for Conveyor

Equipment Selection
The system provides the user with a list of conveyor
solutions for their material handling needs along with a
list of suppliers for the suggested conveyor devices.
Conveyor types are selected on the basis of a suitability
score, which is a measure of the fulfillment of the
material handling requirements by the characteristics of
the conveyor.
The Expert System(ES) approach to conveyor selection
provides advantages of unbiased decision making,
greater availability, faster response, and reduced cost as
compared to human experts.
The computation of the score is performed through the
Weighted Evaluation Method
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Conveyor category selection screen [3]

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Attribute importance specification

screen [3]
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FUTURE WORK OF PROJECT

Design of screw conveyor.

Programming of screw conveyor design
CFD analysis of screw conveyor.
Prediction of screw conveyor performance
at different operating condition.
The rotational speed of the screw.
The inclination of the screw conveyor.
The volumetric fill level of the bulk material.

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References
1)
2)

3)

4)
5)

6)

Alma Kurjak ,The vertical screw conveyor- powder properties and

Screw conveyor design , SE-221 00 Lund ,Sweden January 2005.
A.W. Roberts, The influence of granular vortex motion on the
volumetric performance of enclosed screw conveyors, Callaghan
NSW, 2308, January 1999.
Daniel J. Fonseca*, Gopal Uppal, Timothy J. Greene, A knowledgebased system for conveyor equipment selection, Elsevier 26
(2004) page no. 615623.
Jianjun Dai, John R. Grace, Biomass screw feeding with tapered and
extended sections, Powder Technology 186 (2008) 5664, Elsevier
W. McBride, P.W. Cleary, An investigation and optimization of the
OLDS elevator using Discrete Element Modeling, Powder
Technology 193 (2009) 216234, Elsevier
T. K. Ray, Mechanical handling of materials 2004,92-105

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