The surface structure of cake formed by uniform-sized rigid spheroids in cake filtration

The cake formed by uniform-sized spheroidal particles during cake filtration is simulated with the view of force and torque analyses on the particles. Various effects on the structure of the filter cake, such as the filtration rate, concentration of slurry, particle shape, and friction coefficient between particles, are discussed in depth. The simulated results show that the particle shape plays the major role in the packing porosity. As the shape of particles departs from spherical, the structure of the filter cake becomes looser. The simulation results of cake porosity are compared with the available experimental data of random packing under gravity, and good agreement between them exists when the relative sphericity of the particles is larger than 0.7.