Effect of screw casing structure on descending of burdens in COREX shaft furnace

COREX shaft furnace（SF）is a typical screw feeder with a storage container coupled with eight screw casings and screws.The structure of screw casing plays an important role in the moving behavior of burdens,stress distribution,abrasive wear of screws,and energy consumption during the operation of SF.Therefore,a three-dimensional semi-cylindrical model of actual size of COREX-3000 SF was established based on discrete element method to investigate the influences of screw casing structure.The results show that the increase in the gap between the outside of screw flight and screw casing is beneficial for the smooth operation of SF,resulting in uniform descending velocity along the radius of SF in the lower part,decreasing the size of recirculation region,and alleviating stress concentration in the screw casing.Moreover,raising the gap appropriately is also beneficial to weaken screw abrasive wear,decrease energy consumption,and then prolong the service life of the screws.However,enlarging the gap also leads to more undesired high temperature reduction gas into the SF from melter gasifier,thereby deteriorating the operation of SF.Thus,an ideal distance exists between the outside of the screw flight and the screw casing,which is suggested to be equal to the average of particle diameter.

Structural Synthesis of a Class of 2R2T Hybrid Mechanisms

Conventional overconstrained parallel manipulators have been widely studied both in industry and academia,however the structural synthesis of hybrid mechanisms with additional constraints is seldom studied,especially for the four degrees of freedom（DOF） hybrid mechanisms.In order to develop a manipulator with additional constraints,a class of important spatial mechanisms with coupling chains（CCs） whose motion type is two rotations and two translations（2R2T） is presented.Based on screw theory,the combination of different types of limbs which are used to construct parallel mechanisms and coupling chains is proposed.The basic types of the general parallel mechanisms and geometric conditions of the kinematic chains are given using constraint synthesis method.Moreover,the 2R2T motion pattern hybrid mechanisms which are derived by adding coupling chains between different serial kinematic chains（SKCs） of the corresponding parallel mechanisms are presented.According to the constraint analysis of the mechanisms,the movement relationship of the moving platform and the kinematic chains is derived by disassembling the coupling chains.At last,fourteen novel hybrid mechanisms with two or three serial kinematic chains are presented.The proposed novel hybrid mechanisms and construction method enrich the family of the spatial mechanisms and provide an instruction to design more complex hybrid mechanisms.