(456d) The Discrete Element Modeling (DEM) of Eccentric Weights Based Vibratory Dryer

Vibratory dryers are used in various industries, viz. agriculture, oil & gas, pharmaceutical, for filtration, washing, and vacuum drying. The drying of the powder is based on three-dimensional vibratory and/or rotary motion of material within the dryer. Multiple rotating eccentric weights at different angles relative (lead angle) to each other (known as weight setting) is used to create the complex three-dimensional vibratory motion of the dryer and control the motion of the material within the dryer. However, the effect of different weight settings on the material motion and the subsequent steady state flow-pattern is not well understood. Very few experimental and computational studies investigating vibratory dryers are available in literature. In this work, an experimentally validated mathematical framework is developed to describe the motion of a dryer. The motion of the drier was then implemented in LIGGGHTS v4.0, an open-source discrete element method (DEM) package. Subsequently, a parametric study using DEM was completed to understand the impact of both weight settings and material properties on the motion of material in the dryer, the distribution of material in the dryer and particle-particle collision behavior.