Practical aspects of vibrating

screen simulation with DEM

Lucas Kostetzer
Vibrating screen equipment and applications
Used to obtain multiple particle size distributions

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/d/d5/Screen_Mesh.jpg/640px-Screen_Mesh.jpg frequency_vibrating_screens _p1.JPG

Applications such as in mining, food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Apple.breaker.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lemon_mill.jpg
Chemical_Tumbler_Screener.png
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Common Issues
Corrosion Adhesion Clogging

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Mesh-Fence-Wire-Mesh-Fence-1117741.jpg Wire-Mesh-Fence-Cold-Snow-Wire-Mesh-Fence-260043.jpg 2455_960_720.jpg

Uneven feed distribution Undesired build-up Wear and abrasion

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Vibrating screen simulation
7.5 Hz 15 Hz 30 Hz

• Vibration frequency
• Geometrical changes
• Angle of operation
• Tonnage
• Material types Efficiency: 28.46 % Efficiency: 94.98 %
Efficiency: 56.96 %
• ….. Excessive Wear
Low Wear
Low Throughput
High Throughput

Source: Webinar “ANALYZING VIBRATING SCREEN EQUIPMENT EFFICIENCY USING ROCKY DEM” from ESSS , Guilherme Hanauer de Lima, M. Sc.
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Contents

Vibrating screen DEM

One practical material model calibration procedure

Particle size considerations

Model Simplifications with periodic BC and batch process

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Discrete element model

• Model Parameters
• Material density
• Static and dynamic friction coefficients (p-p, p-w)
• Coefficient of restitution (p-p, p-w)
• Adhesion model parameters
• Particle size (PSD)
• Typical calibration procedures

Repose angle / Drawdown Angle Incline Wall Hopper Flow Shear cell

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Material calibration with Sieve Data
Scenario
Known data
Intake material PSD
Repose angle from Lab
PSD from sieve field data
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Procedure
1. Shape factor – Adjust particle
size with screen aperture
2. Get particle-particle friction
coefficients with repose angle
3. Get particle-wall friction
coefficients with sieve process
data
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Vibrating screen demonstration case
inlet

Double Deck
Screen sizes: 50mm, 40mm
Vibrating freq: 15Hz, 4mm Aperture: 50mm

(circular movement)
Aperture: 40mm

Material flow: 180t/h Top

Size from 60mm to 15mm

D50 = 30mm
Bottom
D10= 15mm Middle

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Screen aperture and the sieve size scaling

• Passed Particles > Screen aperture

• Particles can accommodate and pass though
“smaller” passages
• Can cause misleading results for screens
• Plant data is based on screen aperture not
simulation

• For a given screen aperture/geometry

• Simulate a simple screen process with PSD
• Get the largest rocky particle size
Lrps = K *Lss

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Sieve Size in simulation, a definition

• Definition is for any particle form

• Simple forms, the simulation sieve size can be larger than in Lab.

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Screen size (Lss) to rocky particle size (Lrps)
scaling factor (K)
Lss: 100mm Lss: 50mm

Largest passing Lrps:116.9mm Largest passing Lrps:58.5mm

Lrps = K *Lss

It depends
K= Lrps/Lss= 116.9/100 ~1.17 K= Lrps/Lss= 58.5/50 ~ 1.17 on shape not
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size
 Angle of repose

• Angle of repose
• experimental based characterization
• Simple
• Not able to capture flow effects

• AoR Simulation
• Fix a PSD (decision for cut point) AoR
• Run a DOE or Optimization changing 28
parameters 26

• Python script to measure the average 24

AoR 22

Degrees
20

• Particle-particle interaction 18
y = -14,643x2 + 29,736x + 9,5877
16
• SF_pp =[ 0.1; 0.9] 14
R² = 0,8473

• DF_pp = SF_pp 12
• RR=0 10
0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1

Friction Coefficient particle to particle

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Full Screen results

Steady-state from 10s

Calculation time: 8.1hrs (8CPU)
Can we get the same physics with less
simulation time?

Top

Middle Bottom
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Continuous or Batch Process?

Inlet
• Batch like process mass
flow
• Inlet active only a period

• Motivation
time
• Reduce computational cost
• Much less contacts/particles

• Do we have a similar physics?

• Residence time should be captured
• Oversize particles at top have about 10s
residence time

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Continuous vs Batch
• Mass accumulation distribution at the outlets for case comparison Top

• Global mass balance based on Screen aperture (50mm / 40mm)

• Continuous: last 10s @ steady state
Middle
• Batch: complete time Bottom

• Batch vs continuous differences < 1% Continous vs Batch

Accumulated mass flow distribution
last 10s for continous / total for batch
Full-Batch Full-continous

29,8 30,2 29,3 29,3

19,0 18,4

12,1 12,0
9,4 9,5

0,5 0,5

top /over top/ under mid /over mid /under bot /over bot /under
50mm 50mm 40mm 40mm 40mm 40mm

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Slice Model

• Linear Periodic boundary condition

• Save computational time
• Minimize loss of physics

• Domain Size
• >5x times larger than largest particle
• No need to cut CAD in ROCKY
• Direct Periodic definition

• Comparison to full model is recommended

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Full vs Slice

• Boundary effects for fines segregation are not captured with the slice model
• Overall dynamics is visually similar

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Full vs Slice
Top

• Top under 50mm shows a difference

> 1% due to boundaries effect
• All other fractions have <1% Middle Bottom
Slice vs Full
difference to the full case Accumulated mass flow distribution in last 10s
• Direct PSD can also be used but are Slice-continous Full-continous
not so easy for case comparison
30,0 30,2
28,9 29,3

17,4 18,4

Full@Top 13,2
12,0
10,0 9,5

0,5 0,5

top /over top/ under mid /over mid /under bot /over bot /under
50mm 50mm 40mm 40mm 40mm 40mm

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Computational effort

Intel Xeon 3.2Gz, 8 physical cores

ROCKY 4.2, Solver with 8CPU

Domain Continuous Batch

Full 8.1hr 2.4hr
Slice 9.3hr 1.0hr

With GPU100, Slice + Batch: 0.62hr

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 DOE – Particle to Wall friction coefficient
Slice + Batch Model
Relative accumulated mass distribution for different
• Material calibration with PSD particle-wall friction coeffients
or Global mass balance from
Plant data can be done 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
30,2 30,7 30,3

• DOE 21,9
23,9
20,3
• SF_DF_pw = [0.2 ; 0.5]
• SF_pp = 0.7 13,6
10,6
9,0 8,2
• Less friction carried more
fines with the bulk 0,3 0,9
• TOP / Under 50mm top /over top/ under mid /over mid /under bot /over bot /under
• MID / under 40mm 50mm 50mm 40mm 40mm 40mm 40mm

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Summary and conclusion

Particle size definition and its impact to screen opening

Modell calibration with process data

Model simplifications

Domain reduction with periodic boundaries

From continuous to batch process simulation

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