Air Current Segregation of Alumina Powder

This paper outlines the industrial problem of air current segregation in alumina storage silos which occurs with the handling of the feedstock alumina in aluminium plants and investigates the parameters that affect the severity of the segregation. Bates [1] stated that the feeding rate influences segregation which we can confirm with own experimental findings. Higher powder flow rates tend to reduce air current segregation. Cooper et al. [2] pointed out that the air extraction rate affects the content of fine particles (dust) in the circulating air currents and we confirm his finding. The importance of the effect of different feeding rates on air current segregation was discovered in a two dimensional apparatus. The investigation of the influence of air extraction rate was realised in a cylindrical silo. Both experiments show a strong relationship between the strength of the particle‐air flow in the silo and air current segregation. It is found that an increase of the powder feeding rate or the air extraction rate reduces air current segregation in the experimental equipment. The aim of our experiments was to find all significant parameters and to apply dimensional analysis to develop a method which scales the findings from small scale experiments to large industrial alumina silos. Five dimensionless groups were obtained, which is unwieldy. To reduce the number of dimensionless groups, physical properties were lumped into the terminal velocity. This simplified approach gives three dimensionless groups. Experiments in a water model and an air model justify more research using this simplified scaling method.