(239e) Effect of Baffles on Heat Transfer and Temperature Distribution in Granular Materials in Rotating Drums

Rotating drums are one of the most common devices used for industrial processes that involve thermal treatment of granular materials. One of the methods used to improve efficiency of these processes is to fit baffles to the drums. Prior experimental and numerical studies have shown that baffles improve particle mixing and facilitate faster particle treatment. In the current study, we use discrete element method (DEM) simulations, in order to investigate the effect of baffles on heat transfer of granular materials in rotating drums. Particularly, we investigate the effect of baffles on the scale up of heat transfer based on the recent model developed by Yohannes et al (2016)* for granular flows in rotating drum with no baffles. The simulations were run at low temperatures, where conduction through particle-particle and particle-wall contact area is the dominant heat transfer mechanism. We study the effect of size, number, and shape of baffles on the scale up model and important timescales. A wide range of several particle properties and operating conditions were considered in the simulations. In this talk, we will present results from our simulations and comparison of the results to prior models and experimental results. *B. Yohannes, H. Emady, K. Anderson, I. Paredes, M. Javed, W. Borghard, F. J. Muzzio, B. J. Glasser, and A. M. Cuitiño (2016), Physical Review E 94(4) 042902.