Abstract
The authors designed a laboratory scale continuous flow conveyor and measured the conveying capacity for some sorts of cereal grains.
The results obtained were as follows;
(1) The conveyor chain speed had no effect on the volumetric efficiency and on the overall efficiency. Therefore, the capacity increased with increase of the chain speed. And it was profitable to operate the conveyor chain in high speed.
(2) The maximum volumetric efficiency was about 0.9 for all sorts of grains tested. A little slipage had always to occur between the grain and the chain.
(3) The critical height ratio, √b. hm/t(critical), was about 0.5 for all sorts of grains tested. When the conveyor was operated under the critical height ratio, both the maximum capacity and minimum power requirement could be obtained. Moreover, the flight pitch of the chain should be decided on the basis of this ratio.
(4) Both the maximum volumetric efficiency and overall efficiency decreased slightly as the inclination of trough increased.
(5) The overall efficiency of grains tested was much lower than that of ordinary particle materials. It was essentially due to low apparent density of grains. And then, even if the conveyor chain were changed to lighter chains, the overall efficiency would not be expected to improve much larger.
