Pneumatic Transport of Coarse Grain Particle using Air Mass Balance Model

In this work, the pneumatic transport of coarse grain particles (alumina) through a horizontal pipe is considered. Corresponding flow of the mixture is assumed as a two-phase-one-dimensional flow. The present work considers an air mass balance model. A MATLAB program is developed to update the governing equations. Since a good agreement is observed of the present prediction with the result available in the literature, the model is used for further investigation. The variation of pressure drop, velocity and mass flow rate along length of the pipe for both low and high volume flow rates is predicted. It is observed that the pneumatic transport of the alumina particles is permitted up to a limiting length of the pipe due to a huge pressure drop in the pipe at very high velocity. Corresponding limiting length of the pipe with different mixture velocities is predicted.