Fragmentation of fuel pellets during transport via a belt conveyor: A design of experiment study

This work investigates the proportion of generated fines in a pilot-scale experiment using belt conveyor and commercial fuel pellets. For this, with length 3.1 m was used operated at varying conditions: speeds, percentages material loading on belt, two combinations inclination angle falling height, different number handling steps. We considered design experiments approach based response surface methodology to investigate effect conditions potential generation. Moreover, comparison between results three common benchmark experimental approaches (tumbling box, rotary impact tester, mechanical compression test) made. Results show that steps combined drop height directly affected However, tested speed range level were lower significance. A polynomial quadratic model derived regression analysis showed high accuracy predict fines. tumbling box method good when transported several times.