Pressure Drop in Horizontal Positive Dilute Phase Pneumatic Teff Grain Conveyor

Abstract

Pressure drop in pneumatic conveying systems is a critical factor affecting overall system performance and energy consumption; this study presents an experimental and numerical investigation of pressure drop in a horizontal pipe of a positive dilute phase pneumatic Teff grain conveyor, considering factors such as inlet air velocity (12m/s, 16m/s, 18m/s, 22m/s, 25m/s, 28m/s), material mass flow rate (0.009kg/s, 0.03kg/s, 0.044kg/s, 0.067kg/s, 0.084kg/s, 0.1kg/s), and pipe length (2000mm, 4000mm, 6000mm). The findings compares experimental results with CFD-DPM simulation and scale-up model findings, revealing strong agreement between the experimental and CFD-DPM results, with the simulation accurately reflecting experimental results with (R-squared value of 0.9987) and the best curve fit established between airflow rate and power losses due to pressure drop,  this demonstrates that pressure drop and associated power losses in horizontal pneumatic Teff grain conveyors can be effectively assessed using both experimental and simulation methods, which offering valuable insights for design, optimization and enhanced energy efficiency of system performance for pneumatic conveying systems handling Teff grain.