Authors:

Mitchell Cox

Date Created:

Not specified

Course Title:

Professor:

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About Paper:

Consistent flow of granular materials is crucial for many manufacturing processes. Powders with varying shapes and sizes do not flow predictably, yet the amount of material delivered to and acted upon within a process is vital to the resulting product. To address some of the challenges of granular flow, a custom concentric cylinder rheometer was developed in tandem with a computer model to measure flow and stress field behavior. The original device was designed as a chute with orthogonal shear and discharge orifice for testing the relationship of applied torque for a range of orifice sizes. However, data analysis was complicated because the shear axis was not aligned with gravity. In this work, components were redesigned to orient the rheometer such that the flow is aligned with gravity. Motor torque, material outflow, and other parameters were analyzed with Python scripts. Results from experiments with various tilt angles were compared to simulations and prior studies. The custom rheometer was able to improve the flowability of tested materials by preventing clogging and could be enhanced to measure the fill height or evaluate nonspherical materials. Conclusions and recommendations are provided for understanding granular flow and the ability to maintain constant flows with control inputs to the rheometer. In one aspect, the custom rheometer acts as a precision feeder even at low flow rates. Further research is necessary to understand granular flow and associated challenges including particle size and shape distributions, as well as constitutive and cohesive material properties.

Source:

Purdue University / 2023

Topics:

No topics listed

Co-authors:

Mitchell Cox