Edem-based Simulation Of The Vertical Screw Conveyor Performance Parameters

Continuous conveyor is one kind of transportation equipment used to transport bulk material or products. It is widely used in various production departments and logistics of the economy. It can reduce the strenuous manual labour of people, improve efficiency of operations and be apt to realize the mechanical automation with continuous conveyor. As one kind of continuous conveyors, vertical screw conveyor is extensively used in multifarious trades of the national products, which is as one type of critical equipment or a principal accessory equipment in numerous production process flow.The vertical screw conveyor often goes into conveying particle upward. In this article, after studying the characteristic of particle and analysing the conveying mechanism of vertical screw conveyor, it is proved that the transfer efficiency is affected by the characteristics of particles, the filling level, thread pitch, as well as the revolving speed of screw, and so on. Based on the discrete element method, the particles'transportation state in vertical screw conveyor is simulated with the EDEM by importing the 3D model of vertical screw conveyor, establishing the real model of bulk material in EDEM and changing the rotation of vertical screw conveyor, the fill level of particle etc. Then, analyze the result of simulation. In accordance with the simulation result, the fill level of particle with the relevant rotation of screw should be given according to the characteristic of particle for the high efficiency and low energy dissipation when conveying particle with vertical screw conveyor.