Development and validation of a CFD-based model for simulating rotating drum separators
Within the context of the European Green Deal, recycling rates of plastics and metals are targeted to increase which will subsequently increase the requirements for high-quality recycled plastics and metals. The decisive step to achieve this high-quality recyclate lies in the sorting of the material...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor & Francis Group
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Engineering Applications of Computational Fluid Mechanics |
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| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/19942060.2024.2368606 |
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| author | Theodoros Dimas Arne Eggers Jef R. Peeters Maarten Vanierschot |
| author_facet | Theodoros Dimas Arne Eggers Jef R. Peeters Maarten Vanierschot |
| author_sort | Theodoros Dimas |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Within the context of the European Green Deal, recycling rates of plastics and metals are targeted to increase which will subsequently increase the requirements for high-quality recycled plastics and metals. The decisive step to achieve this high-quality recyclate lies in the sorting of the materials before their recycling. Density separation sorts materials based on their density difference from a liquid's density and is the most widely used separation technique in the industry because of its high cost-effectiveness. However, experimentally optimising a density separator would require a large amount of time and investment due to its large dimensions and the complex physical phenomena involved. Hence, the scope of this study is to develop a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model to investigate the fluid flow and trajectories of plastic particles in a density-separation-based rotating drum. This novel strategy and CFD model offer a tool capable of predicting the separation efficiency with an absolute error of 1–5%, depending on the polymer type, while reducing the computational time by a factor of 9. Moreover, the influence of air bubble attachments to the injected particles in the drum is observed and the inclusion of inter-particle collisions on the accuracy of the model is assessed. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4dd0e6839e354570878d7ff38db78cc3 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1994-2060 1997-003X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Engineering Applications of Computational Fluid Mechanics |
| spelling | doaj-art-4dd0e6839e354570878d7ff38db78cc32025-08-20T01:55:08ZengTaylor & Francis GroupEngineering Applications of Computational Fluid Mechanics1994-20601997-003X2024-12-0118110.1080/19942060.2024.2368606Development and validation of a CFD-based model for simulating rotating drum separatorsTheodoros Dimas0Arne Eggers1Jef R. Peeters2Maarten Vanierschot3KU Leuven, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Group T campus Leuven, Leuven, BelgiumKU Leuven, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Group T campus Leuven, Leuven, BelgiumKU Leuven, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Group T campus Leuven, Leuven, BelgiumKU Leuven, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Group T campus Leuven, Leuven, BelgiumWithin the context of the European Green Deal, recycling rates of plastics and metals are targeted to increase which will subsequently increase the requirements for high-quality recycled plastics and metals. The decisive step to achieve this high-quality recyclate lies in the sorting of the materials before their recycling. Density separation sorts materials based on their density difference from a liquid's density and is the most widely used separation technique in the industry because of its high cost-effectiveness. However, experimentally optimising a density separator would require a large amount of time and investment due to its large dimensions and the complex physical phenomena involved. Hence, the scope of this study is to develop a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model to investigate the fluid flow and trajectories of plastic particles in a density-separation-based rotating drum. This novel strategy and CFD model offer a tool capable of predicting the separation efficiency with an absolute error of 1–5%, depending on the polymer type, while reducing the computational time by a factor of 9. Moreover, the influence of air bubble attachments to the injected particles in the drum is observed and the inclusion of inter-particle collisions on the accuracy of the model is assessed.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/19942060.2024.2368606Rotating drumsdensity separation modellingcomputational fluid dynamicsdiscrete phase model |
| spellingShingle | Theodoros Dimas Arne Eggers Jef R. Peeters Maarten Vanierschot Development and validation of a CFD-based model for simulating rotating drum separators Engineering Applications of Computational Fluid Mechanics Rotating drums density separation modelling computational fluid dynamics discrete phase model |
| title | Development and validation of a CFD-based model for simulating rotating drum separators |
| title_full | Development and validation of a CFD-based model for simulating rotating drum separators |
| title_fullStr | Development and validation of a CFD-based model for simulating rotating drum separators |
| title_full_unstemmed | Development and validation of a CFD-based model for simulating rotating drum separators |
| title_short | Development and validation of a CFD-based model for simulating rotating drum separators |
| title_sort | development and validation of a cfd based model for simulating rotating drum separators |
| topic | Rotating drums density separation modelling computational fluid dynamics discrete phase model |
| url | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/19942060.2024.2368606 |
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