화학공학소재연구정보센터
KAGAKU KOGAKU RONBUNSHU, Vol.46, No.5, 142-151, 2020
Numerical Study of an Annular Bead Mill by the Advanced DEM-CFD Method
In a bead mill, shear force becomes dominant for disintegrating aggregated particles in particle processing. For nanoparticle processing, fine beads are required, because nanoparticles are broken if especially high contact energies are applied. Since bead motion cannot be observed experimentally, simulation is a promising approach to predicting bead behavior. In simulation studies in the literature, the coefficient of friction was optimized to reproduce bead behavior. However, optimization of the friction parameters is not sufficient for precisely reproducing bead behavior, because the spatial distribution of beads might influence solid-fluid interaction forces. In this study, an annular-type bead mill was simulated by our Advanced DEM (discrete element method)-CFD (computational fluid dynamics) method. The simulation method was validated by comparing the simulated and experimentally observed bead behavior. In particular, the influence of bead-wall friction parameters on solid-fluid interaction forces as well as macroscopic bead behavior was examined. The simulation results suggest that bead-wall friction influences not only the tangential component but also the normal component of bead-bead contact energies.