Development of a drill energy utilization index for aiding selection of drill machines in surface mines

Drill machines used in surface mines, particularly in coal, is characterized by a very poor utilization （around 40%） and low availability （around 60%）. The main purpose of this study is to develop a drill selec- tion methodology and simultaneously a performance evaluation technique based on drill cuttings produced and drilling rate achieved. In all 28 blast drilled through were investigated. The drilling was accomplished by 5 different drill machines of Ingersoll-Rand and Revathi working in coal mines of Sonepur Bazari （SECL） and Block-II （BCCL）. The drills are Rotary and Rotary Percussive type using tri- cone rock roller bits. Drill cuttings were collected and sieve analysis was done in the laboratory. Using Rosin Ramler Diagram, coarseness index （CI）, mean chip size （d）, specific-st trace area （SSA） and charac- teristic particle size distribution curves for all the holes drilled were plotted. The predictor equation for drill penetration rate established through multiple regressions was found to have a very good correlation with an index of determination of 0.85. A comparative analysis of particle size distribution curves was used to evaluate the drill efficiency. The suggested approach utilises the area under the curve, after the point of trend reversal and brittleness ratio of the respective bench to arrive at drill energy utilization index （DEUI）, for mapping of drill machine to bench, The developed DEU1 can aid in selecting or mapping a right machine to right bench for achieving higher penetration rate and utilizations.

Effects of mesh style and grid convergence on numerical simulation accuracy of centrifugal pump

In order to evaluate the effects of mesh generation techniques and grid convergence on pump performance in centrifugal pump model, three widely used mesh styles including structured hexahedral, unstructured tetrahedral and hybrid prismatic/tetrahedral meshes were generated for a centrifugal pump model. And quantitative grid convergence was assessed based on a grid convergence index(GCI), which accounts for the degree of grid refinement. The structured, unstructured or hybrid meshes are found to have certain difference for velocity distributions in impeller with the change of grid cell number. And the simulation results have errors to different degrees compared with experimental data. The GCI-value for structured meshes calculated is lower than that for the unstructured and hybrid meshes. Meanwhile, the structured meshes are observed to get more vortexes in impeller passage.Nevertheless, the hybrid meshes are found to have larger low-velocity area at outlet and more secondary vortexes at a specified location than structured meshes and unstructured meshes.

Capillary hydrodynamic fractionation of hydrophobic colloids:Errors in the estimated particle size distribution

Capillary hydrodynamic fractionation（CHDF） with turbidity detection at a single wavelength is an analytical technique that is often used for sizing the sub-micrometric particles of hydrophobic colloids.This article investigates three sources of errors that affect the particle size distribution（PSD） estimated by CHDF：diameter calibration errors,uncertainties in the particle refractive index（PRI）,and instrumental broadening（IB）.The study is based on simulated and experimental examples that involve unimodal and bimodal PSDs.Small errors in the diameter calibration curve can produce important deviations in the number average diameter due to systematic shifts suffered by the PSD modes.Moderate uncertainties in the PRI are unimportant in the analysis of unimodal PSDs,but in the specific case of bimodal PSDs,errors in the PRI can strongly affect the estimated number concentration of each mode.The typical IB correction（based on the IB function estimated from narrow standards） produces slightly erroneous average diameters but can lead to PSDs with underestimated widths and distorted shapes.In practice,the three investigated sources of errors can be present simultaneously,and uncertainties in the average diameters,the shape and width of the PSD,and the number concentration of the PSD modes are unavoidable.

Using the discrete element method to assess the mixing of polydisperse solid particles in a rotary drum

Despite the wide applications of powder and solid mixing in industry, knowledge on the mixing of polydisperse solid particles in rotary drum blenders is lacking. This study investigates the mixing of monodisperse, bidisperse, tridisperse, and polydisperse solid particles in a rotary drum using the dis- crete element method. To validate the model developed in this study, experimental and simulation results were compared. The validated model was then employed to investigate the effects of the drum rotational speed, particle size, and initial loading method on the mixing quality. The degree of mixing of polydis- perse particles was smaller than that for monodisperse particles owing to the segregation phenomenon. The mixing index increased from an initial value to a maximum and decreased slightly before reaching a plateau for bidisperse, tridisperse, and polydisperse particles as a direct result of the segregation of par- ticles of different sizes. Final mixing indices were higher for polydisperse particles than for tridisperse and bidisperse particles. Additionally, segregation was weakened by introducing additional particles of intermediate size. The best mixing of bidisperse and tridisperse particles was achieved for top-bottom smaller-to-larger initial loading, while that of polydisperse systems was achieved using top-bottom smaller-to-larger and top-bottom larger-to-smaller initial loading methods.

Capillary bridges and capillary forces between two axisymmetric power-law particles

Capillary interactions are fundamentally important in many scientific and industrial fields. However, most existing models of the capillary bridges and capillary forces between two solids with a mediated liquid, are based on extremely simple geometrical configurations, such as sphere-plate, sphere-sphere, and plate-plate. The capillary bridge and capillary force between two axisymmetric power-law profile particles with a mediated constant-volume liquid are investigated in this study. A dimensionless method is adopted to calculate the capillary bridge shape between two power-law profile particles based on the Young-Laplace equation. The critical rupture criterion of the liquid bridge is shown in four forms that produce consistent results. It was found that the dimensionless rupture distance changes little when the shape index is larger than 2. The results show that the power-law index has a significant influence on the capillary force between two power-law particles. This is directly attributed to the different shape profiles of power-law particles with different indices. Effects of various other parameters such as ratio of the particle equivalent radii, liquid contact angle, liquid volume, and interparticle distance on the capillary force between two power-law particles are also examined.