Process Engineering

More than ten years ago, interest in PFC led a farm implement manufacturing company to contact Itasca about application of the code to simulate grain harvesting. In the ensuing decade, such requests have multiplied. Itasca now has years of experience with process engineering applications, a dedicated staff and a growing number of clients in the area. Projects in this field are varied, demanding, and specific. Three recent examples illustrate.

The National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center on Structured Organic Particulate Systems has been studying the design of continuous powder mixers used to create uniform binary mixtures of powders used in the pharmaceutical industry. PFC3D was used to study the effect of impeller tip velocity Froude number on the efficiency of the mixing process. Preliminary findings confirm that optimal mixing is obtained at a Froude number of one where convected particles are at the threshold of free flight.

A major manufacturer of agricultural equipment was concerned with the effect of humidity on the efficiency of a soybean conveying system. Small-scale models could not be properly scaled-up to represent the true geometry of the equipment, leaving numerical simulation as the sole design tool. PFC3D was used to model changes in particle cohesion due to humidity and their effect on flow as particles are collected and conveyed by an inclined auger.

A major food processing and packaging company was concerned with the uniform coating of porous particles by a liquid spray. PFC3D and its powerful built-in programming language FISH were used to model the granular flow, the spray rate, and the rate at which each particle collects fluid from the spray and exchanges it with neighboring particles during mixing.