my thoughts about it

I dont know if if it would pay to investigate it as it will be a very very large decision tree that would be required to grown before building the DEM on any specific material handled or potentially handled.

leon ■

Dear All,

A typical DEM simulation and quotation is highly dependent on the granular make-up, its rheology, flow capacity, and speed.

In simple form, to model a bucket elevator from scoping product up in loading station and then immediately discharging to study flow patterns during discharge will not require a big model unless the product is largely rock less than 5 mm with tonnage beyond 1000 t/h.

In its simple geometry and particle count of less than 200,000 granules, the simulation and geometry make-up could be done in less than one week with a cost not to exceed $7,000 USD.

What information needs to be collected: 1) Wear properties, 2) internal particle breakage, comminution or attrition, along with 3)dust or gas dynamics and flow animation? ■

No problem:

1. Into bucket and left behind or refresh with new product equal to amount in bucket. Tonnage goes up as bucket takes more. Such curve can be defined for each bucket configuration and loading hopper geometry.

2. Can do with your choice of parameters in speed, bucket size, particle details, and loading arena.

3. All particles at 25 mm would be a bunch depending on if only had to establish steady-state which maybe 5 or 6 bucket fills. First, would need to establish loading of receiving hopper zone, then accelerate buckets to speed, and finally have two buckets with same loading.

4. 100 cm/hr might work with: a) velocity= 0.67 m/s bucket speed, b) bucket pitch= 1.5 m, at 3) filling = 0.0625 cm 4) 8000 particles per bucket x 10 buckets = 80,000 particles to accelerate and reach steady-state in last two buckets is OK. Flow animation of filling and discharging.

5. All things are variable except particle shape. If you desire 4 particle agglomerate, then it might take a little longer to achieve desired condition. Above is doable in about 3 days with about 80,000 particles, animation and brief report.

6. A one of run might cost about $ 6,000 USD, anticipating there might be more. Let's see, at 100,000 L = 100,000 L/$6,000/run x $1.6USD / L = about 27 runs. Could negotiate for much lower rate if the study was done 6 per/study. Cost may be closer to 60 or about $2670/ run. ■

Designer:

You can do all the simulations yourself by purchasing ROCKY. You might need to upgrade your computer to a 6 core machine. A 6 core i-7 980X 3.33 GHz Intel machine, with 16 GB or memory and a TB of HD can be had for less than $1800.(USD). You need a OS that accesses 6 cores. The basic 2 core ROCKY code leases, per year, at $4995. (USD). I only put the price on this to emphasize it's much less than the $100,000 number claimed to be competent 3D-DEM. Very rich for most. We offer software at less than 5% of the industry leader, its faster, with more capability, and will continue to excel over the field.

Chute to chute; multiple to one, one to multiple

Chutes with moving gates

Starting with a plugged chute

Belt feeders under bins

Apron feeders (pan geometry)

Vibrating feeders

Vibrating screens

Screw Conveyors

more ?????

We are available to answer questions. We can also offer references for those who wish to verify performance and capability from independent sources.

See the ROCKY website: http://www.conveyor-dynamics.com/Rocky ■