Aeration and cohesive effects on flowability in a vibrating powder conveyor

A CFD-DEM model for aerated vibratory convection was developed to explore the coupled gas-solid interactions governing bulk powder bed dynamics. Each simulation prepared by carefully characterizing rough, porous conveyor baseplate and four candidate particle sizes representative of typical beds. Trends in particles between 20 250 μm diameter could be explained considering each powder's minimum fluidization velocity magnitude van der Waals cohesive forces. Simulations fine powders under high forces exhibited competing effects from drag cohesion; promotes powder-frit liftoff while cohesion suppresses contact separation. Experimental velocities were observed good agreement with simulated mean throw numbers 0.25 0.50.